


The Icarus to Your Certainty

by Revasnaslan



Series: Sunlight Verse [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkwardness, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Minor Violence, Miscommunication, Pining, Raunchy language, Slow Burn, and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates), bed sharing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:01:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23397424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revasnaslan/pseuds/Revasnaslan
Summary: The portal proved to be a success, and now, Horde Prime is on his way.And yet, Hordak can’t push away this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something is wrong, that this isn’t what he wanted, as he feels the tug of something else that he hadn’t truly considered before now.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: Sunlight Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680691
Comments: 101
Kudos: 308





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> the sequel to something foreknown to me. this was originally my nanowrimo for 2019 that i never really go around to finishing, but i figured i'd polish up chapter one since i'm getting close to finishing my other current ongoing project.
> 
> _Each day you rise with me  
>  Know that I would gladly be  
> The Icarus to your certainty  
> Oh my sunlight, sunlight, sunlight_
> 
> _Strap the wing to me  
>  Death trap clad, happily  
> With wax melted I'd meet the sea  
> Under sunlight, sunlight, sunlight_
> 
> _— Sunlight by Hozier_

Hordak paced back and forth across the floor, trying to ignore the unease that had slowly coiled its way into his gut since Entrapta had retired for the evening. Around him, the Fright Zone was silent… he couldn’t remember the last time the Fright Zone had been this quiet. With the energy grid knocked off-line, its ever present hum was completely absent. Hordak found that the lack of such a seemingly inconsequential sound unnerving in ways he had never bothered to consider before.

There were protocols in place in the event there was a direct attack on the Fright Zone, of course. Shelters dotted the entire compound, allowing soldiers to hide until structural damage could be assessed and the area had been searched for remaining hostiles. In the larger Horde, such shelters had mostly been built planetside for aerial bombing threats posed by the natives. While Etherians lacked aircraft, Hordak had had the shelters built anyway, and that foresight seemed to have paid off.

A soft sigh broke through the silence, and Hordak paused mid-stride. His ears immediately turned in the direction of the sound, and his gaze followed a moment later. Entrapta and Imp were on the other side of the room, curled up together on her bed. Entrapta’s hair was haphazardly thrown over herself like some kind of makeshift blanket, shielding much of her body from view. Imp was curled up in her arms, tucked beneath her chin and chirping softly in his sleep. They were lucky to have found some semblance of peace—enough to rest, at least. Even if he had sat down for a moment, Hordak doubted he would have found the same solace.

Besides, someone had to keep watch. Entrapta had been through far too much in a frighteningly short period of time, and while he had been helpless to stop any of it, he could at least stand guard and allow her the chance to rest.

Hordak returned to his pacing, striding back and forth as he became lost in his own thoughts again. He assumed that the Princesses had vacated the sanctum almost as quickly as he and Entrapta had. It did not make strategic sense for them to linger since they appeared to have been little more than a small invading source. Certainly they wouldn’t have stood against the might of the Horde. While he was certain they had already left, knowing that did little to ease his nerves.

He still hadn’t figured out how they had managed to infiltrate the Fright Zone undetected in the first place. With what little information he had, Hordak assumed that Shadow Weaver had played a hand in that. She knew how to navigate the Fright Zone with ease, having lived within its borders for close to thirty years, and she had abilities as a talented sorceress that she could have used…

If she had managed to slip into the Fright Zone through magical means, it would stand to reason that she could get in again the exact same way.

An irritated growl threatened to rise in his throat. This was  _ exactly _ why he had ordered Catra to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island. She was a liability, a threat that needed to be neutralized. Now, not only was Shadow Weaver alive and well, but she also had managed to find standing within the Rebellion. He hadn’t missed how Queen Angella’s daughter had been working alongside her during the battle that had happened within the sanctum, even though most of his focus had been on keeping Entrapta safe.

He also doubted that Catra had remained in the Fright Zone following the destruction of the portal, as he had made his… fondness for Entrapta quite clear. She must have ‘seen which way the wind was blowing’—as Etherians said—and fled, knowing that she wouldn’t have been welcomed back after what she had done. Given it was unlikely that she had anywhere else to go, Hordak was certain their paths would cross again, and when that happened, he would ensure she faced punishment for her actions.

Stopping near the door to Entrapta’s room, Hordak’s ears shifted forward as he listened for any kind of movement out in the hallway. Had the Fright Zone not been in the middle of a lockdown, he might have heard soldiers occasionally pass by, though this section of the Fright Zone was far less traveled. A small part of him was glad that Entrapta had chosen such a deserted section of the Fright Zone to live in. She was less likely to attract attention here if she was insistent on staying, rather than moving to one of the free rooms in the officer’s barracks.

Entrapta and Imp were still sleeping peacefully on the far side of the room, and the idea of just sitting down and trying to relax pulled at Hordak. While he knew he would never actually get any sleep, in spite of his exhaustion, getting off of his feet for a moment might have helped the ache that had slowly been building in his muscles since they had escaped the sanctum. While he didn’t want to encroach on Entrapta’s space, especially not when she was sleeping, he supposed he could always sit on the floor beside her bed. 

And doing so would still put him between her and the door in case someone managed to force it open.

When he approached the bed, though, he paused a couple of steps away, his gaze lingering on the bandages covering Entrapta’s brow—another inch or so lower and she might have lost her eye at Catra’s hand. She hadn’t had the opportunity to wash the blood from her hair before falling asleep, leaving it stained a deep shade of burgundy. A small part of Hordak feared the blood might not wash out, or that the nick Catra had left on her brow might scar, and Entrapta would be left with life-long reminders of Catra’s betrayal. Even though Entrapta tried to act as though people leaving her behind didn’t matter to her, Hordak suspected that she was, on some level, very sad about what had transpired.

Tentatively, Hordak reached out and smoothed her hair out of her face—to check the bandages, to make sure they hadn’t been bled through in the short amount of time she had been asleep. When she awoke he’d change them, so she didn’t risk getting an infection. At his touch, Entrapta let out a soft hum in her sleep and stirred. Hordak froze in place, unable to move or retract his hand. Surely she would be angry at him for touching her while she slept, but to his surprise, she merely blinked sleepily at him.

“What time is it?” Entrapta asked softly, her voice hoarse from sleep.

“Z-Zero-three-hundred,” Hordak managed to answer.

“Oh, wow,” Entrapta said through a yawn as she propped herself up using her hair and stretched one arm above her head. “I was asleep for a lot less time than I thought…”

“Around two hours,” Hordak mumbled, carefully folding his hands at the small of his back and averting his gaze. He could feel his ears burning.

“Still no word from the outside, then?” Entrapta asked as she adjusted how she was holding Imp. He was sleepily rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand and yawned wide.

“No,” Hordak said, shaking his head. “I have been standing guard, waiting for any of my Force Captains to get into contact with me—”

Entrapta looked at him in surprise. “You haven’t gotten any rest?” she asked, brow pinching in concern. “But you needed rest even more than I did!”

“I…” he trailed off, willing the heat to leave the tips of his ears. “Someone… someone had to stand guard…” 

Entrapta frowned and shook her head. “But you need rest, Hordak!” she insisted as she perching herself on a shelf of her hair so that she was eye-level with him. “I know you keep an odd schedule, but you’ve been through a lot in the past couple of hours! I got my rest, so now it’s your turn.”

But if the Fright Zone was still unsecured, if someone managed to get into the room, what would happen if he was asleep? Even though Entrapta could hold her own if she needed to, it did not sit right with Hordak to leave her without some form of backup. What if the intruder was quick and agile and she got overwhelmed before he was awake enough to aid her?

Already Hordak was shaking his head. “You do not need to worry about me, Entr—”

His words were punctuated by a loud  _ clang! _ outside of the room, as though something had crashed into the door. Hordak spun on his heel, putting himself between Entrapta and whatever was trying to get inside. Silence followed, but Hordak didn’t move, easing his ears forward and listening intently. He could feel Entrapta’s presence against his back as she and Imp peeked over his shoulder to watch the door, although a quick glance told him that the two of them were far more  _ curious _ than they were  _ cautious _ .

Then, there was a faint  _ bwoop _ .

Behind him, Entrapta gasped excitedly before she ducked past him and headed straight for the door. There was nothing Hordak could do to stop her before the door slid open and revealed Entrapta’s bot—Emily, if he remembered right—and Force Captain Scorpia…

Rage immediately settled in Hordak’s chest and he growled, low in his throat. Force Captain Scorpia was a companion of Catra’s, and one of her closest friends within the Horde, if his observations were accurate. As he approached the door, he grabbed a stun baton that had been set down on the desk, and powered it up. Putting himself between Scorpia and Entrapta, he leveled the stun baton at Scorpia’s face, and she flinched back in surprise and threw her claws up in a show of surrender.

“State your business, Force Captain Scorpia,” he hissed out through his teeth.

“Hordak!” Entrapta said sharply before Scorpia could even respond, and the tone of her voice gave Hordak pause.

He tore his gaze away from Scorpia to find that Entrapta actually looked…  _ startled _ . Her eyes had widened, her hair frizzing out and rippling in what could only be described at unease. She wasn’t even looking at him. Her gaze was trained on the stun baton.

“Power that down,” she stated firmly. “Please.”

Hordak opened his mouth to argue, only to realize that her fear was directed at something  _ he _ had done…  _ he _ had scared her… and then he remembered what she had said about how Catra had attacked her and betrayed her, and he felt very foolish. Without a word, he powered down the stun baton and tossed it to the side, where it skidded across the floor of Entrapta’s room and hit the far off wall.

It didn’t matter. He wouldn’t need it to subdue Scorpia if it came to that. Entrapta’s comfort was more important.

“I am so relieved that I finally found you!” Scorpia said breathlessly, as though she had been running throughout the Fright Zone looking for them. “I’ve been looking everywhere!”

“Oh, we’ve been in here the whole time! Hordak needed a safe place to recuperate and—” Entrapta cut off and moved her hair as though she was going to snap her mask down over her face, only to realize that she hadn’t put it back on yet since waking up. “—and Catra injured me.”

Scorpia’s brow furrowed as she worried her lip between her teeth as though she was internally debating something and couldn’t find the proper words. “I… I should have done something…” she finally managed. “I didn’t want her to hurt you.”

Though Hordak was still on edge, seeing Scorpia speak so sincerely did allow his shoulders to relax, just a touch. Entrapta also did not appear to be put off by Scorpia’s words at all. Rather, she was smiling. Hordak knew that if Scorpia had wanted to attack them, she could have easily done so. Her tail produced a powerful toxin that could immobilize pretty much anybody. Perhaps even himself, despite his larger-than-Etherian stature.

“… state your business, Force Captain Scorpia,” Hordak repeated as he tried to regain his composure. He had already acted irrationally when he had pulled the stun baton on her. While he might not have cared if  _ Entrapta _ saw him when he wasn’t posturing as the ruler of the Horde, it wouldn’t do for  _ Scorpia _ to get overly friendly with him on a regular basis. He quickly adjusted his stance, squaring his shoulders and resting his hands at the small of his back. He left his hair disheveled, though, despite it not being standard practice.

“I came looking for you with Emily!” Scorpia explained and beside her, Emily let out a sharp, excited  _ bwip _ ! “I know that the lockdown protocols are meant to be followed—” Her tone took a sheepish undertone as she admitted that and she rubbed the back of her neck with one of her claws. “—but I was really worried about Entrapta! I thought that Catra might have…” she trailed off and expression fell again, if only for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. Entrapta found you, Lord Hordak, so she was definitely safe.”

Entrapta let out one of her happy melodic hums, and bounced on her toes. “Thank you, Scorpia,” she said sincerely. “That is very sweet of you.”

“Have you heard anything from the other Force Captains?” Hordak pressed.

Scorpia immediately fell back into proper stance, bringing her claw to her chest. “Yes, sir! Force Captain Octavia is leading a precursory sweep to make sure the Princesses have vacated the premises.”

Hordak’s ears flattened and his eyes narrowed as he stared her down. “… and Catra?”

“I… I don’t know,” Scorpia said, shaking her head. If she had had mobile, readable ears, Hordak thought that perhaps they’d be drooping. Her expression fell and she seemed… sad, mostly. Dejected, perhaps. “She… she wasn’t in your sanctum, sir. That was the first place I looked for you and Entrapta.”

“And the state of the sanctum?” Entrapta piped up. Her hair frizzed up a little bit, and in her arms, Imp seemed to be paying special attention, tilting his head to the side in the makings of curiosity.

“It needs some heavy clean up, but the structure seems to be more or less intact,” Scorpia reported. “I can escort you there so that you can survey the damage for yourself. I don’t think anybody except the security bots and Force Captain Octavia’s contingent should be out right now, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Hordak shook his head. “You go and join Force Captain Octavia,” he said firmly. “Sweep the Fright Zone and look for any intruders or sabotage. Report back to me in the throne room with your findings as soon as you have them.”

Scorpia hesitated for a moment, before she brought a claw to her chest in a salute. “Right away, sir.”

—

At Entrapta’s insistence, Hordak did end up getting some much needed rest. When they had reached the sanctum, she had herded him into his personal quarters and then left him to sleep while she inspected the sanctum for structural integrity. While he had tried to argue with her, and insist he should be out there helping her, he had eventually given in and laid down to rest for just a little while. 

He ended up sleeping for around two hours—around twice as long as usual for one of the short naps that he had to take throughout the day to ensure he was well rested enough to not have impeded judgment. When he finally emerged from his quarters, he found that Entrapta had perched herself up in the rafters, checking the supports for any signs of damage. Imp was up there with her too—Hordak caught the flash of the little brat’s eyes in the dim light—while Emily had remained on the floor, craning her ocular processor back so that she could still see Entrapta and Imp despite not being able to follow them up into the rafters.

“—a couple of screws knocked loose! Should be easy enough to fix—” Entrapta was saying into her recorder.

“ _ A couple of screws knocked loose— _ ” Imp repeated back at her, in her voice.

“What’s the point of the recorder if you’re just going to repeat everything I say anyway, little guy?”

Hordak stopped beside Emily and craned his head back to watch as Entrapta absently scratched Imp beneath his chin with her hand rather than her hair. Imp let out a soft chirp in return, bumped the crown of his head against her cheek before he turned back to watching what she was doing.

“Entrapta?” Hordak called up to her.

“Oh, good!” Entrapta said, easily lowering herself down from the rafters by one of her ponytails. Imp moved from her shoulder to perch atop her head, seeming pleased to see Hordak up and about again. “You’re finally awake! Did you sleep well?”

She was rather close, mere inches away from him, but Hordak steeled himself despite the bright blue flush that was creeping along the tips of his ears. “Quite well, yes,” he said, before he indicated up to the rafters—first with his ears, as was habit, and then again with a wave of his hand. “How has your progress been?”

“I’m almost done, I think,” Entrapta said, tapping her chin as she looked around the sanctum. “There are several unstable sections in the roof that will need to be reinforced before I think it would be a good idea to get back to heavy experimentation. Another explosion right now would probably cause the roof to cave in.”

“Then we shall not cause an explosion,” Hordak said, finding he was smiling despite himself as he listened to her talk. “Do you require assistance?”

“I think so, once I start the repairs!” Entrapta said with a nod. “Gimme a minute to finish checking this last section.” And then she was gone, lifting herself back up into the rafters and taking a chittering Imp along with her.

Beside him, Emily let out a soft  _ bwoop _ as she watched Entrapta and Imp up in the rafters. Hordak thought that perhaps she wanted to join them, but much like him, Emily lacked the ability to get up there safely. If he went up there right now, without any kind of support, the rafters would surely collapse under his weight. He was content to stay on the ground and simply watch Entrapta until she required his assistance. How ever long that would end up taking.

His ears perked and swiveled back in the direction of the main door of the sanctum when he heard the sound of someone approaching. Half-turning to look over his shoulder, he saw Force Captain Octavia entering. She paused when she noticed that he was standing beside a battle bot that, at a glance, was faulty, while Entrapta and Imp continued hanging out in the rafters, talking amongst themselves.

“Do you have a report, Force Captain Octavia?” Hordak asked simply, ignoring the flabbergasted expression on her face.

“I—y-yes, sir,” Octavia said quickly, stuttering in a way that was very much unlike her as she adjusted her stance, straightening her back and avoiding his gaze. “Force Captain Scorpia and I would be more than happy to brief you, if you wished. She is waiting out in the throne room.”

“Very well,” Hordak said before he turned again to peer back up into the rafters. “Entrapta? I have to—”

“Oh, I heard!” Entrapta said as she appeared suddenly, hanging upside down from the rafters by her hair, with Imp held in her arms. She flashed a bright smile at him and waved a flock of hair as one would wave a hand to say goodbye. “Have fun! Tell me all about it when you get back!”

Hordak returned the smile with a small one of his own, and ignored the look on Octavia’s face when he turned and headed right past her for the doors to the sanctum. She only seemed to hesitate for a moment before he heard her footsteps as she hurried out of the sanctum after him.

When he emerged from the sanctum, he noticed Force Captain Scorpia was indeed waiting out in the throne room, at the base of the throne’s dais. Hordak didn’t greet as he passed and climbed the stairs to take his seat for the briefing. Octavia took her place besides Scorpia without a word.

“What did you find?” Hordak asked.

“A power surge damaged the energy grid,” Force Captain Octavia announced. “Thankfully, Princess Entrapta had installed some surge protectors throughout the complex, so portions of the Fright Zone remained unaffected and should be back online soon. However, I have several of our engineers doing a more in depth investigation. They will begin repairs once they have a better understanding of the damage.”

Hordak sighed irritably. “And how long will that take?”

“The preliminary investigations are already underway, Lord Hordak,” Octavia said. Though her expression was unreadable, she seemed to have regained her composure after her lapse back in the sanctum. “The head engineer in Sector Beta-Nine said that he should know how long within the next couple of hours.”

“Excellent,” Hordak said. “Ensure that he meets with me as soon as possible. I want to be informed of every decision.”

“Of course, my Lord,” Octavia said, dipping her head.

When Force Captain Scorpia stepped forward, she seemed to be as peppy as she usually was. “A full sweep of the Fright Zone was conducted,” she announced. “There were no Princesses left behind, and there doesn’t appear to have been sabotage. We searched for bombs, kill switches, anything that could damage the structural integrity of the Fright Zone.”

Well, that was good at least. Hordak’s shoulders relaxed, if only just a touch. “And was there any signs of how they managed to get within the Fright Zone’s perimeter in the first place?”

Scorpia hesitated. “Uh… well, we swept over the perimeter,” she said. “Including the sewage systems, the skiff yards in Sectors Alpha-Two and Gamma-Seven. There were no signs of forced entry, and, at a glance, none of the skiffs appear to be unaccounted for. They were either let inside or they came in through means we are unaware of.”

Hordak’s frown deepened. He had been hoping that the sudden appearance of the Princesses within the Fright Zone could have been explained away easily, and that he was just… overthinking everything. It was unsettling to learn that Shadow Weaver’s meddling was one of the only explanations for what had happened earlier.

Octavia spoke up then. “There was one eye-witness report, my Lord,” she said. “From one of those goons from the Crimson Waste that Force Captain Catra returned with.”

Hordak’s ears gave the slightest of twitches and he leaned forward in his seat. “… go on.”

“She said that she found Shadow Weaver and the Princesses in one of the storage rooms within this sector,” Octavia said. “A group of six, including a woman who was ‘scary beyond all reason’. I suspect that is a reference to Shadow Weaver.”

A group of six would have had a difficult time sneaking through the Fright Zone to get close to his sanctum without being spotted. It seemed that Shadow Weaver actually  _ had _ used one of her parlor tricks to get inside the Fright Zone’s boundaries undetected. Most unsettling, indeed… and if she had done it once, then it stood to reason that she could do it again. The idea of having a sudden invasion force of Princesses appearing within the Fright Zone at any moment did not sit well with him at all. 

He would have to bring up the possibility of some type of magic nullifier with Entrapta when she was done strengthening the rafters in the sanctum. Magic was a rather foreign concept to him, so he had no hopes of building such a thing by himself, but Entrapta certainly could. He had faith in her and her abilities.

“And former Force Captain Catra?” he asked next, his voice coming out as a low growl as he tried to keep his rage contained. “Did you find any signs of her within the Fright Zone?”

Octavia shook her head. “She either has not left the Fright Zone, and is hiding somewhere, or she managed to escape on foot.”

Given how stubborn she was—and how high her self-preservation instincts could be—Hordak didn’t doubt that Catra could have managed to escape on foot. She could have been miles from the Fright Zone by now, trying to make it out in the wilderness beyond their borders.

“Send out a search party for her,” he snarled, baring his canines at the force captains standing in front of him. “She must stand trial for her crimes against the Horde.”

Catra’s trial would be little more than a formality, as he had already decided her fate. While he would have just ordered that Catra be shot on sight, her most recent betrayal had been very personal to Entrapta—after all, she had considered his former Force Captain a close friend. Ultimately, when Catra was apprehended and returned to the Fright Zone, her punishment would be at Entrapta’s discretion.

If Catra was lucky, Entrapta would be feeling merciful and spare her life once again, and she could rot in the Fright Zone’s prison for all he cared. Otherwise, an execution—or worse—awaited her.

“I want her apprehended  _ alive _ ,” Hordak said finally. “And as quickly as possible. She is a liability to the Fright Zone as long as she is free to move as she wishes.”

It would have been very easy for Catra to invade the Fright Zone if she managed to pull together another army, and the very idea of that caused unease to twist in the pit of hit gut. While he was not afraid of her potential return, as he was certain that the Fright Zone had the numbers to fend off whatever army she could manage to pull together, Catra was vindictive. She found weaknesses and exploited them in order to bring down her enemies.

She was very much like Shadow Weaver in that regard.

The idea of Catra returning the Fright Zone outside of chains was a worse case scenario. He did not want her to be  _ anywhere near _ Entrapta ever again unless she returned to the Fright Zone in cuffs. Not after she had very nearly stabbed Entrapta in the back with a stun baton. She could have very easily killed her, and he didn’t know what Catra was intending to do with Entrapta afterward either. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. It would have just made him even angrier than he already was at the situation they now found themselves in.

“Force Captain Octavia, you are to follow her trail beyond the borders of the Fright Zone,” Hordak said, leaning forward in his seat. “Force Captain Scorpia, begin organizing the reconstruction efforts. There is a lot of work that must be—”

A loud crash from the sanctum cut him off. Although his ears perked, he managed to keep himself from jumping straight out of his seat. It sounded like something had collapsed in the sanctum. For a brief moment, he worried that Entrapta had injured herself, but when neither Imp nor Emily came out of the sanctum, frantic and begging for his attention, he assumed everything must have been fine. It was likely she had just knocked something ajar by accident while beginning the repairs on the rafters.

“You have your orders,” Hordak said stiffly as he looked back at his Force Captains, who stared back at him in surprise. “Dismissed.”

Scorpia and Octavia exchanged a short glance, but they said nothing before they both saluted and then turned to leave. Hordak remained at the top of the dais, ears twitching anxiously at the tips as he watched their retreating backs. When they finally disappeared from the throne room, Hordak quickly descended the steps and took a sharp turn, all but running back to the sanctum. When he entered, the first thing he noticed was a larger pipe that must have fallen from the ceiling—the source of the crash, no doubt. Entrapta must have accidentally unscrewed it while it was working. He could still hear her and Imp chattering away in the rafters, and he breathed out a sigh of relief.

As he headed deeper into the sanctum, his eyes fell on what remained of the portal. The frame—rent in half by She-Ra’s sword—sat in a pile towards the back corner of the room, untouched. Beside it, the computer’s screen had flared to life, broadcasting the signal he had put together to get the attention of his brother. While he couldn’t be sure if the message had actually managed to get through, he was certain that it had. The portal had worked almost exactly as he had intended for it to, and what remained of it, sitting untouched and gathering dust in the back corner of the sanctum, were a clear reminder of what was coming.

There was a clang and a sharp curse right above him, and a moment later, a six-sided hex driver fell from the rafters and hit him square atop his head. He let out a surprised grunt and glanced up to the ceiling and meet Entrapta’s gaze—or rather, her welding mask—as she poked her head out from between the rafters.

“Hordak!” she said happily, lifting her mask with a stray flock of hair to smile at him. “I didn’t hear you come in!”

He smiled back tentatively. “I just returned.”

“Great! I can use your assistance,” she said happily, before motioning to the hex driver that was sitting on the floor. “Can you hand me that please?  _ Someone _ is being unhelpful!”

Imp screeched and pouted at her, as he seemed content to cling to her shoulder, rather than bring her the tools she was asking for. Usually, he was more than happy to help Entrapta in exchange for chin scratches, but if he didn’t want to move from his perch, and Entrapta was unwilling to knock him off… well, then Imp would be unhelpful and just continue parroting what she was saying instead.

Wordlessly, Hordak bent down to pluck the hex driver off of the floor and hold it up for her to take from him. A flock of her hair snaked down and took the hex driver from his grasp. Before she disappeared back into the vent, she lightly nudged her hair against his cheek in what he assumed was meant to be an affectionate gesture. Even if it wasn’t, it still caused his ears to flush blue.

“How was your meeting?” Entrapta asked, her voice echoing amongst the rafters.

“Well enough,” Hordak said simply, trying to catch a glimpse of her amongst the shadows of the rafters and pipes above his head. Once he caught sight of her, it was easy enough to follow her movements, even though she was mostly obscured amongst the overhead pipes. “I have ordered a manhunt for Catra… Force Captain Octavia will follow her trail as far as she’s able.”

Entrapta poked her head out from between the rafters, tilting her head to the side. Her expression was impossible to discern, as her mask was obscuring her features once again. “Why?” she asked, although she didn’t seem to be confused so much as… perhaps nervous?

“She harmed you,” Hordak said, trying to keep her anger at bay—but the growl in his voice was still plain. “That is more than enough incentive for me to send one of my force captains after her. She will never harm you again so long as I live and breathe.”

A soft hum left Entrapta, that little melodic noise that she made when she was giddy or truly appreciated something. It echoed amongst the rafters, from behind the welder’s mask she had over her face. Hordak found that he liked hearing the sound when it was directed at him, and the light blue flush across the tips of his ears deepened.

“Thanks,” she finally said, and he could tell just based on her tone of voice that she was smiling behind her mask. “I appreciate it.” Then, she ducked back into the rafters, out of sight.

Hordak was left to stare at where she had been only a moment previously. Beside him, Emily let out a loud  _ bwoop _ , as if to acknowledge his presence. Tentatively, he reached out to pat the augmented battle bot atop her outer casing, which earned a high-pitched whir in return. She shifted, pressing against his side as they both returned their attention to the rafters to watch Entrapta work. Aside from Entrapta’s mutterings as she worked and Imp parroting her words, the sheer silence of the sanctum was unnerving. Only the backup generator was running, and its humming was not as calming as that of the Fright Zone’s main energy grid.

“Entrapta—” he spoke up, in an attempt to make conversation while she worked.

He nearly flinched back in surprise when Entrapta suddenly flipped down from the rafters above, upside down in front of him and close enough that they were nearly nose-to-nose. Her mask was out of her face this time, allowing him to see her smile as she tilted her head to the side as she waited for him to speak. Her hair was fanning out around her like a halo of some kind.

“I—I um…” Hordak trailed off, as he hadn’t actually thought of a conversation topic for them to have. He had just wanted to hear her voice more. “How… how is your progress?”

“Oh!” Entrapta said, and her smile brightened. “Well, I finished sweeping the sanctum for structural damage—”

“ _ A couple of screws knocked loose _ !” Entrapta’s voice came from the rafters, where Imp was still perched. He peered down from the shadows, and pointed to the pipe that Hordak had passed when he had first returned to the sanctum. And then he pouted like a petulant child.

Entrapta huffed and twisted around to frown up at Imp. “I thought we agreed not to mention that little mishap!”

Imp stuck out his tongue at her, ears tilted down.

“Entrapta…” Hordak spoke up, trying to get her attention again. “The structural damage?”

Immediately, any annoyance that Entrapta had felt seemed to evaporate and her expression brightened again. “Oh, right! I’ve just started strengthening some of the supports. If you’d think I could try to make them stronger than they were before, so in the future, if there’s another attack then the roof couldn’t  _ possibly _ collapse over our heads!”

“That… that is an excellent idea,” he managed to say, although the mere idea of another attack on the Fright Zone set his teeth on edge.

“However, I think that most of the repairs will have to wait until I can get more sleep…” Entrapta admitted, looking sheepish as she returned to the rafters and Imp climbed back onto her shoulder to continue ‘overseeing’ her work in exchange for chin scratches. “So I think I’ll head back down to my room in a little bit… I’m still pretty exhausted.”

“You could stay here,” Hordak blurted out before he even fully understood what he was saying, and he immediately bit his tongue.

Hadn’t she just said mere hours ago that it seemed ‘silly’ to move into the officer barracks just down the hall when she was more happy with the refurbished storage closet she had been living in. Peace and quiet, infrequently traveled halls, and proximity to the kitchens seemed to be important to her, after all. However, it was also his understanding that Etherians needed at least eight hours of sleep to remain alert and healthy. With the Fright Zone still under partial lockdown, it didn’t sit right with him to just leave her unguarded while she slept, but he couldn’t just stand guard outside her room for eight hours when there was still so much to oversee. All of his Force Captains were also currently occupied, and he  _ certainly _ didn’t trust any of the cadets to do it.

Above him, Entrapta had stopped working. Her tools were no longer clinking against the metal of the overhead rafters and pipes. This time, when she emerged from the rafters, only her head was visible, and her mask was still over top of her face, making her expression impossible to discern.

“I—uh…” Hordak found that his words had failed him entirely. She was clearly upset, or—or he had overstepped some kind of unspoken boundary with the mere suggestion that she stayed in the sanctum. It had not been his intention to make her uncomfortable—

“… like… full time?” Entrapta asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I… y-yes, if it pleases you,” Hordak said—after all, the only reason that Catra had managed to betray her was because her lab was so far away from the sanctum. “You—you don’t have to, though. I just… I thought that you’d—”

Entrapta lifted her mask, and much to his relief, she was smiling. “Oh, but I’d love to!” she insisted, flipping down from the rafters so they were eye level—and Hordak found himself frozen in place again at how close she was. “We would be able to perform so many more experiments, and I’m certain productivity would go up since less time would be spent with travel!”

“I—”

“Ohhhh, this is  _ so _ exciting!” Entrapta continued. “I’ve never had a roommate before!”

She continued rambling on excitedly, leaving Hordak to watch her. He was unfamiliar with the term ‘roommate’, although based on context he could judge what she was getting at—while he had had ‘roommates’ in the past, they had never been referred to as such. But then again, he had never had a ‘lab partner’ either…

He found that he was quickly growing fond of the terminology.


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little bit of a shorter chapter this time, but i hope it's still enjoyable :)

With everything else that had been going on around the Fright Zone, moving all of Entrapta’s things into the sanctum did not actually end up occurring for another couple of days. There just hadn’t been time for it, as Hordak’s attention had been spread thin enough as it was, what with how the Fright Zone had been left in complete disarray. The entire complex had been subject to blackouts as their engineers worked to fix the sections of the energy grid that had been damaged by the portal’s surge, and Force Captain Octavia’s contingent had been away for several days, following Catra’s trail in an attempt to apprehend her. As such, their manpower for other endeavors had been stretched thin.

Entrapta had moved into the sanctum anyway—insisting upon it—and Hordak hadn’t really seen any reason to argue with her about it. That first night, she had brought over everything she had deemed ‘essential’, until the rest of her things could be moved as well. Although he had helped her carry what she had felt was ‘essential’ back to the sanctum, he hadn’t commented on any of it. She had seemed most interested in bringing all of her tools, which would allow her to continue working, and what remained of the First One’s tech she still had access to… which, admittedly, was not much. Hordak had counted only a single small crystal, which did not appear to be much use to him, although he supposed that it could have helped her in her studies regardless.

And then there were the so called ‘stuffed animals’ which he did not see the appeal of, but Imp had quickly commandeered as soon as they were brought through the sanctum’s doors.

Hordak had also completely reworked his sleeping schedule to avoid impeding on hers, as there was only one bed in his quarters. If he had been thinking at all when he had originally offered for Entrapta to move into the sanctum in the first place, he might have remembered that meant they would be sharing a bed. The easiest solution to that unforeseen… logistical issue, would have been to order another bed be brought into the sanctum. Entrapta deserved to have her own space if she wished.

But… she had yet to complain about sharing a bed with him, even if they did not use it at the same time. There being only one bed had been the least of Entrapta’s concerns the first time he had allowed her into his personal quarters. Rather, she had seemed shocked by how ‘drab’ his quarters actually were. Decoration and ‘adding personality’—as she had put it, although he did not see how a room could acquire a personality from a few paintings—had never occurred to him. When he told her as much, however, she had seemed flabbergasted, and then insisted that she had all kinds of decorations back in her old room that would help liven the place up.

… including a painting of a ‘cute’ kitten that had eyes the size of its head, which seemed to stare into the depths of his very soul. Entrapta appeared to have several such paintings. Hordak only hoped that his confusion and surprise at the sight of them was not as plain as it felt. Force Captain Grizzlor and a couple of the younger cadets were watching him as if to gauge his reaction. They had been the only people available to move all of Entrapta’s belongings, and while it was clear that none of them were particularly  _ happy _ about it, none of them were complaining, at risk of offending Hordak.

“ _ Ohhhh _ !” Entrapta let out a delighted squeal as she flipped down from the rafters suddenly, right in front of Force Captain Grizzlor’s face. Although he started, flinching back as though he meant to jump away from her in surprise, Grizzlor managed to catch himself. If Entrapta noticed that she had startled one of the Force Captains, though, she gave no indication, and she reached out to take the painting from him with her hair. Grizzlor gladly gave it up, seeming unnerved by her hair’s movement.

Then, Entrapta twirled through the air with a refined sense of otherworldly grace only she could have been capable of, and faced Hordak. He willed his ears to not dust blue under her gaze, and quickly broke eye contact with her when she held up the painting for him to look at.

Entrapta let out one of her soft little melodic hums. “This one is my favorite!” she insisted, hair frizzing in what Hordak had come to know meant excitement. “Can I put it in our room?”

Despite himself, the corner of Hordak’s mouth quirked upwards in the makings of a smile. She could put her ‘cute’ paintings wherever she liked, as far as he was concerned, as long as she kept making that sound whenever she was happy. “… if it pleases you.”

Her smile widened and she lightly nudged a stray flock of her hair against his cheek. The contact was gone almost as soon as it had come, and she swung past him, disappearing through the doors on the far side of the sanctum, where his— _ their _ room was located. Hordak was left staring off after her almost wistfully, and he was almost tempted to follow her…

“ _ What the fuck _ …”

Although the words were said in little more than a whisper, mumbled beneath someone’s breath, Hordak still heard them clearly. Perhaps if his hearing had not been as sensitive as it was—far more than that of the typical Etherian—then he might have missed their words entirely. But he hadn’t, and his ears twitched and swiveled in the direction of the cadet who had just decided to make their confusion known. Judging by the soft gasp they let out, the cadet had realized their mistake, too.

For the briefest of moments, Hordak had forgotten that he and Entrapta currently had an audience, that all of their interactions would be scrutinized, and that because of that, there would likely be a new plethora of rumors floating around the Fright Zone come that afternoon. He realized how his interactions with Entrapta might have appeared from an… outside perspective, and how he had almost lapsed, nearly following after her without dismissing those he had tasked with fetching her things. A certain nervousness settled in his chest, but he quickly tried to compose himself as he turned his gaze back to his troops.

While none of them spoke another word, Force Captain Grizzlor and the cadets were all staring at him, mouths agape and eyes wide. They seemed to be utterly flabbergasted by what they had just witnessed, try as they might to hide it from him. Hordak was well aware that most of the Fright Zone tended to have the same reaction to Entrapta’s mere presence. Her complete disregard for conduct seemed aggravating to some, while others found it unnerving how little she seemed to care about the power structures that were in place. She could not be intimidated into listening to someone when she held no interest in what they were saying, though he knew people had tried at one point or another… himself included, admittedly.

Nobody knew what to do with the wayward Princess who had been brought into the fold, and he doubted that his reactions to her antics helped matters any.

Hordak squared his shoulders and straightened his posture, carefully folding his hands at the small of his back as he strode forward, approaching Force Captain Grizzlor and the cadets. “I believe that you still have more to collect from Entrapta’s quarters, yes?” he prompted, voice coming out in a low growl as he narrowed his eyes in warning.

“Uh… but what—what about  _ these _ , Lord—Lord Hordak?” one of the cadets, a shrimpy looking blond boy who Hordak could not remember the name of, said as he nervously held up another one of Entrapta’s paintings.

Hordak waved his hand dismissively. “Set them against that wall. Entrapta will find a place for them.”

He did not have to speak twice. The cadets moved quickly, leaning the remaining paintings up against the nearby wall before they scurried out of the sanctum as fast as their legs could carry them. None of them looked back. Force Captain Grizzlor, however, hesitated for a moment.

“Do you have something to say, Force Captain Grizzlor?” Hordak asked in a clipped tone.

Although Grizzlor hesitated for a moment, he quickly shook his head and retreated after the cadets without a word. He disappeared from the sanctum without looking back, leaving Hordak alone.

Hordak remained where he stood, his ears easing forward to listen for any sounds beyond the sanctum. While he was expecting to hear laughter or barbed jabs, rumors already weaving themselves, he was met with silence instead. His troops were already long gone. Letting out a deep breath, Hordak allowed his shoulders to relax.

An excited chirp—one of Imp’s—cut through the relative quiet of the sanctum, and it was accompanied by a high-pitched giggle and the sound of Entrapta’s voice. Although Hordak’s gaze remained fixed on the main door to the sanctum, one of his ears twitched and swiveled back in the direction of their quarters as he considered his options…

… and decided that it would be at least another half hour before Force Captain Grizzlor and the cadets returned with more of Entrapta’s belongings. He did not need to stand there and wait for them.

So, Hordak turned away from the sanctum’s main door and made his way back towards the doorway that Entrapta had disappeared through earlier. When he entered, he found that she was hanging from the ceiling by her hair, regarding the painting she had vanished with mere minutes before. Tilting her head to the side, Entrapta hummed softly and tapped her chin. Imp was perched on her shoulder, mimicking her movements and posture, although Hordak doubted that he was being as contemplative as Entrapta was being.

She had hung the painting directly above the bed that Hordak had been sleeping in since he had crash-landed on Etheria, many years ago. Already several of her ‘stuffed animals’ had made their way onto it, but Hordak ignored those for now. Instead, his ears gave a curious flick as he too mimicked what Entrapta was doing and tilted his head to look at the painting of the ‘cute’ kitten with the too-big eyes.

“Is that where you are going to put it?” he asked, hoping that his voice sounded neutral and not confused. He might have understood her fascination with such paintings, but he did not want to shame her for them.

“Oh, hi, Hordak!” Entrapta said cheerfully, and without turning around, she waved to him with a flock of hair. “I think so! I tried hanging it over by the door, but I wasn’t feeling it.”

“… you have to ‘feel it’ to hang it up, no?” Hordak said, frowning at the unfamiliar phrase.

Entrapta giggled as she swung across the room and lowered herself to the ground beside him. “I meant that I didn’t end up liking it where it was,” she explained. “Maybe one of the other paintings will fit there instead! There’s more of them, right?”

Hordak nodded and stepped to the side to allow her to go through the doorway. “I had them leave the paintings for you, so that you could place them wherever you wished… at your discretion.”

“Oh, good!” Entrapta said with an excited clap, her smile brightening. “I’ll decide where to put them in a minute, but first I have something to show you!”

As she turned away, heading back out into the sanctum, she grabbed hold of his wrist with a flock of her hair, leading him along by the hand. Wordlessly, Hordak followed after her, unsure of what exactly it was that she was intending to show him. Even though it had been less than a week since the portal incident, Entrapta had already begun at least half-a-dozen projects, and thought of at least two dozen more that she eventually wanted to pursue. While Hordak couldn’t remember the finer details of all of her projects, there had been mention of an upgrade to Emily’s weapon system, so that they could possibly implement the improvements into the bots around the Fright Zone, and he also recalled that she wanted to completely rewire the entire energy grid with more failsafes against power surges.

However, what she ended up leading him to was a… transmitter of some kind. Sleek, several inches taller than he was when standing up straight, made of a dull gray metal and alight with purple accents that matched most of the rest of Entrapta’s tech.

“Tada!” Entrapta said excitedly, leading him to walk in a circle around the transmitter, allowing him to see it from all angles. “What do you think?”

“It is beautiful, Entrapta,” Hordak assured her. “… but I do not know what I am looking at.”

“Oh, right, sorry!” Entrapta said sheepishly before she gestured to the device with her hair. “You mentioned something about wanting a magic dampener, so I took it upon myself to make a prototype!”

Hordak glanced back at the device, ears perking in interest. “To prevent another invasion of the Fright Zone through magical means, yes,” he said as his ears eased forward in interest. Although it seemed rather small to be capable of shielding the entirety of the Fright Zone, he assumed that Entrapta was still working out some of the kinks in the design. “Does it work?”

Entrapta shook her head, although she didn’t look perturbed by that at all. Rather, she was smiling brightly, and Hordak found that her excitement was rather infectious. “Not yet!” Entrapta said as she lifted herself into the air using the rafters above them as an anchoring point. “While I have figured out how to signal, I’m having trouble making it target only magical energy! When I last tested it, it blew up the western skiff bay.”

Hordak let out a soft hum, tucking his hands at the small of his back as he watched her move about and inspect different sections of the transmitter. “I did not receive a report on that,” he admitted, although he did recall a shake running through the Fright Zone two days prior while he had been sitting in a meeting with Force Captain Grizzlor. She must have left the sanctum while he was otherwise occupied to test it.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about it!” Entrapta said, waving a flock of her hair dismissively as she popped open a panel along the transmitter’s base and peered inside at the internal circuitry. “Scorpia was there. She got some of the cadets to handle it! Since it was already fixed I didn’t think it was important enough to mention.”

Then, she tentatively glanced up and frowned a little bit, seeming unsure. “Should I have mentioned it to you?”

Hordak hesitated. In truth, he was far more concerned about her potentially blowing herself up by accident than he was about anything else. He knew from experience that she had a bad habit of coming close to doing that because of her boundless curiosity… but all the same, he didn’t want her to squander her talents because he could be… protective of her. “I would like to accompany you next time,” he finally said. “I know little of magic, but I might be able to offer insight that would be… beneficial.”

Entrapta’s bright smile retorted. “Oh, that’s going to be so much fun!” she said giddily. “Like when we were working on the portal!”

Hordak found his own expression softened, and the corner of his mouth quirked upwards again. “Yes, exactly like—”

Someone cleared their throat from mere feet away, and Hordak nearly jumped in surprise at the sound—he hadn’t heard anybody approaching. His head snapped in the direction of the intruder, and he growled, baring his canines at them.

“Hi, sorry!” Scorpia chirped, lifting a pincher to wave. A nervous smile appeared on her lips as she glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I hope I’m not interrupting your science-ing!”

“Oh, not at all!” Entrapta piped up before Hordak could snarl that she was indeed interrupting their ‘science-ing’.

Taking a deep breath, Hordak squared his shoulders and tucked his hands at the small of his back again. “Do you need something, Force Captain Scorpia?”

Scorpia immediately stood at attention. “I just received word from Force Captain Octavia’s contingent, and—and well, you said you wanted to be informed if anybody checked in, so—”

Hordak’s ears immediately perked, and he strode forward, approaching Scorpia. “Did they find Catra?”

Behind here, there was the audible snap of metal, and one of Hordak’s ears twitched in the direction of the sound. When he glanced over his shoulder, he found that Entrapta had pulled her mask down over her face, shielding it from view. Despite this, she was not actually working on anything. His ears shifted forward, listening, and he noticed that her breathing had taken on a shakier note.

“We can continue this discussion out in the throne room,” Hordak said to Scorpia in a low voice, although his gaze did not stray from where Entrapta was crouched on the floor. When she didn’t react to his words at all, his ears shifted back, pinning in place against the sides of his skull. “Entrapta? I am stepping out for—”

“I know, I heard,” Entrapta said stiffly. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Though Hordak opened his mouth to say something, his words caught in his throat. This was another one of those ‘friend things’, wasn’t it? Comforting people. Entrapta was clearly upset about Catra being mentioned, as she had been in a perfectly good mood before then, but Hordak couldn’t think of the words that would help her…

A soft chirp came above his head, and when he glanced up, he noticed Imp peering down from the rafters. Wordlessly, he motioned with his ears to where Entrapta was, before he turned and followed Scorpia out of the sanctum. Behind him, he heard Imp glide down and land on Entrapta’s shoulder, so he knew that she’d at least have company.

He stopped with Scorpia at the base of the throne’s dais, as he couldn’t be bothered to climb the steps of it right now. That would take much too long, and he didn’t want to be away from Entrapta for longer than necessary when she was upset like this.

“What did Force Captain Octavia have to report?” he prompted.

Scorpia hesitated, which told Hordak everything he needed to know about the success of the search. “They… they lost Catra’s trail at the edge of the Whispering Woods,” she finally said. “Since—Since the Woods are dangerous and all, Force Captain Octavia did not want to press further without the go-ahead from you, sir.”

Hordak sighed, pinching his nasal ridge between his fingers and closing his eyes. “And just how likely is Catra’s survival if we do not pursue her?”

“I… it—it would depend on where she goes,” Scorpia said, and while she stopped her assessment there, it was very clear to him that there was more that she wanted to say. Hordak could see it on her face, the way her mouth had hardened into a thin line as if she was physically trying to hold her tongue, how she was now avoiding all eye contact by staring at some point on the nearby wall beyond the tip of his left ear.

Hordak found himself wondering if Scorpia had come to the same realization that he already had… that there was a very real possibility that Catra had fled into the Whispering Woods in order to try and find refuge in Brightmoon with the Princess Alliance. It was difficult to tell what her motives were, but there was precedent for the Princesses recognizing when a former enemy could become an invaluable ally. They had taken in Shadow Weaver, after all, and seemed to have trusted her enough to bring her back to the Fright Zone and fight alongside her.

If Catra somehow ended up there, it would have devastating consequences…

“Tell Force Captain Octavia that she can continue the search and sweep the Woods at her discretion,” Hordak said with an air of finality, already pivoting on his heel to head back into the sanctum, where Entrapta would be waiting for him. 

Scorpia didn’t answer, shuffling her feet nervously behind him.

Hordak paused mid-stride and glared over his shoulder at her. “Did I stutter, Force Captain?”

“I… no, I heard you!” Scorpia said, quickly shaking her head. However, she still seemed hesitant to leave, glancing at the door that led into the sanctum. A heavy sigh left her and her shoulders slumped. “I… I just wanted to apologize to Entrapta… for, y’know, everything.”

Her words surprised him. Hordak knew that, to some degree, Entrapta still cared for Scorpia, even going as far as to consider her a friend after everything that had happened between the two of them and Catra. While it was confusing to him, Scorpia had given no indication that she actually meant harm to his Lab Partner. She had been helpful during the Fright Zone’s reconstruction efforts, and judging by what Entrapta had said earlier, she was still looking out for Entrapta as though nothing had changed between the two of them.

And he trusted Entrapta’s judgment.

“For reasons I do not understand, Entrapta continues to trust you, Force Captain Scorpia,” Hordak said, turning around fully to face her. “I have a task for you.”

“A, uh… a task, sir?” Scorpia repeated seeming confused.

“When I am otherwise occupied, I wish for you to remain with Entrapta,” Hordak said simply. “I doubt this will disrupt your other duties, as you already seemed to be doing just that. I was not even aware that she had blown up a skiff bay until she bluntly told me so.”

Scorpia let out a sharp, startled squeak, and then smiled sheepishly. “I—uh… since—since it was cleaned up, I didn’t see any reason to report on it,” she said quickly with a nervous laugh.

Hordak waved his hand dismissively. The fact that a skiff bay had been blown up due to one of Entrapta’s experiments gone haywire was a non-issue for him. The more pressing matter was her safety, which was why he fixed Scorpia with a harsher glare. “If I have any reason to suspect you wish Entrapta harm, I will not hesitate to make an example of you,” he hissed. “Are we clear, Force Captain Scorpia?”

“Crystal,” Scorpia said, smiling weakly back at him. 

“Good,” Hordak said. “Dismissed.”

He remained rooted in place, watching as Scorpia turned and scurried from the room, disappearing back into the main hallways of the Fright Zone. She had other duties she had to be attending to, no doubt. If Hordak remembered correctly, she had been placed in charge of reworking patrols to accommodate Force Captain Octavia’s absence. Taking a deep breath, Hordak turned once again and made his way back into the sanctum.

It was silent when he entered, which was… disconcerting, to put it mildly. Usually, Entrapta was talking excitedly about whatever she was working on, whether it be to her recorder or to Imp.

As he made his way deeper into the sanctum, Hordak’s ears perked and eased forward, listening for any signs of Entrapta. He walked past where Emily had powered down earlier to recharge, curled up into a neat little ball, but she didn’t respond to his movements at all, and remained powered down. When he reached the sanctum’s heart, he picked up a chittering sound from up in the rafters, and when he glanced up, he found that Entrapta shoved herself into a too-small space above him. Imp was curled up in her arms, nudging the crown of his head against her jaw as her hair curled around the both of them, obscuring their forms from view.

“Entrapta?” he said, voice coming out sharper than he had meant for it to, and she started, as if she hadn’t even noticed him return at all. Hordak’s brow ridge furrowed in concerned as he peered up into the shadows at her. “I… will you come down here… please?”

There was another snap of metal as she shoved her mask back over her face, and Hordak could see the light reflecting off of the red lenses of the mask. Entrapta moved sluggishly as she poked her head out from the rafters, cradling Imp in her arms. However, she stopped there and didn’t emerge fully from her hiding place.

“I…” Hordak sighed heavily, unsure of how to proceed from here. “Do you… do you want to talk about it?”

Entrapta tilted her head to the side, but didn’t remove her mask. “Talk about what?”

For a moment, Hordak was silent trying to think of how to best breach the subject… she had only started acting like this when he had mentioned Catra. He had not meant to upset her—rather, he had been expecting the opposite. That she would be glad that there was news on the whereabouts of the person who had betrayed her. He supposed he must have read that wrong.

Vaguely, he motioned to his face, in reference to her mask. “You are covering your face, and… and prior experience suggests that means that you are upset about something,” he said, speaking slowly and choosing his words carefully. “I should not have mentioned Catra in your presence.”

He decided not to mention that Catra was still at large, as he doubted she would take that well when she was already in such a state. It was entirely possible that she’d evade capture in the Whispering Woods as well, and escape Force Captain Octavia. He doubted that Entrapta would have anything other than a negative reaction to mentioning Catra again until she was captured and properly dealt with.

Vaguely, he was aware that Entrapta had still said nothing in response.

“… I…” Hordak tried to start again, but his words left him. Why was this not working? Why was he so bad at this? She had been perfectly happy up until he had mentioned Catra, like an idiot. “… I… shall leave you, if you want to be alone.”

He started to turn away, intending to retreat to the far side of the sanctum, as Force Captain Grizzlor was sure to be returning soon with the cadets and another load of Entrapta’s belongings. The least he could do was direct them and give Entrapta some space so that she had time to herself. Then, he felt her hair wrap loosely around his bicep and hold him in place to keep him from leaving. Looking over his shoulder, Hordak found that Entrapta had emerged from the rafters more fully and pushed her mask back out of her face. She still seemed a little unsure, but at least he could see her face again.

“… Entrapta?”

She sighed and pulled him over to the high-backed chair that had already been brought from her room—one of the first things that Grizzlor and the cadets had fetched for her. Lightly, she nudged him into sitting down on the soft cushions and then plopped down beside him, setting Imp down in her lap.

“… can I see your arm, please?” she asked after a moment, holding out her hand.

Hordak’s ears gave a confused twitch as he stared at her.

She peeked up at him, looking a little bashful. “Tinkering helps me think.”

Wordlessly, Hordak held his arm out for her, palm facing up, and rested his wrist into her outstretched hand. That was enough to get a tiny smile out of her, and she easily popped one of the panels of his armor open, exposing the internal circuitry. Her hair worked deftly as she began her examination, but Hordak wasn’t watching that. Rather, his attention was focused on her face.

“I don’t pretend to know what I’m doing when it comes to people,” Entrapta admitted, resting her chin against her free hand as she watched her own hair work. She kept her other arm wrapped firmly around Imp’s mid-section as he peeked up and tried to watch what she was doing. “But I had assumed that… I don’t know… that Catra was  _ glad _ that I had saved her life? People are usually happy when their friends save their life, right?”

Hordak was not sure of the answer to that, either. Of course, he was of the opinion that Catra should be glad that Entrapta had deemed her worthy of friendship at all. Had Entrapta not interceded on her behalf, he could have easily left Catra to rot in the Fright Zone’s prison or sent her away to Beast Island, rather than being sent to the Crimson Waste. He had thought the place a dead zone, as none of the Horde’s scouts had ever returned from there. Entrapta, however, had assumed she would survive.

Had he been put into a similar situation, had Entrapta cared enough to intercede on  _ his _ behalf and save  _ his _ life…

“I would have been,” he finally said. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if she had heard him—it was difficult to tell when she did not have mobile ears—but then she nudged a flock of hair against his cheek in what he took to be acknowledgement, even if she didn’t look up from her work.

“I had run all of the usual parameters,” Entrapta continued. “But I know now that my data was incorrect. She cared more about opening the portal to get back at Adora than she did about our friendship. She tried to—” She cut off and made a noise that verged on frustration.

“Even if Catra is foolish enough to void your friendship, that is not  _ your _ fault,” Hordak retorted, his eyes narrowing. “Besides, you still have Scorpia… and me. When Catra is apprehended and returned to the Fright Zone, she will stand trial for the crimes she committed against you, and then you can give her any punishment you see fit.”

Entrapta glanced up at him, tilting her head to the side. There was a flash of something in her eye that he couldn’t identify—uncertainty, perhaps?

“I will see that it is carried out, no questions asked,” Hordak insisted.

The corner of Entrapta’s lips quirked upwards into the makings of the smile, as though she was finally starting to feel better, only to fall a moment later. She sighed softly, and she averted her gaze. “Well, I don’t know, Hordak… could you give me some time to think about it?”

Her hesitance at the suggestion that she decide Catra’s punishment was plain, but that was fine. Even though Hordak would have been all too happy to shoot Catra on sight, Entrapta clearly still held some lingering amount of affection for her. He might not have understood such things, as he had never really had a friend before now, but…

“You may take as much time as you need,” Hordak assured her. “But remember that she will never harm again… I will protect you if it comes to that.”

This time, Entrapta’s smile stayed in place, and she peered up at him, tilting her head to the side. “Yeah, I know you will.”


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaand we're back!

Much of Hordak’s time was spent hidden away in his sanctum, away from prying eyes, but on the rare occasion he did venture out, it was most often under the cover of darkness. He frequently paced the Fright Zone’s winding corridors when he wanted to work through his frustrations—usually because one of his projects had hit a snag or dead end and he had lobbed something across the sanctum into a nearby wall, but he hadn’t calmed down enough to clean up his own mess. Although he would occasionally run across soldiers in the dead of night, he rarely paid them much mind.

Because of his late night excursions, he doubted that most of the Horde realized that he even needed sleep. Much less that he actually slept multiple times a day, in short, one hour long spurts. It was an inherent part of his biology, that had little to do with his health defects, and for the longest time, the only being in the Fright Zone who had known anything about his sleeping schedule had been Imp.

Since she had properly moved into the sanctum, however, Entrapta had quickly pieced together how his sleeping schedule worked. Their new… arrangement had been going on for roughly a week and a half now, and Entrapta had been nothing but courteous whenever Hordak mentioned that he needed to sleep. Even when it cut into time he could have otherwise spent aiding her in her scientific endeavors. It seemed to be only right that he show her the same courtesy when she was sleeping…

As such, he had been avoiding their quarters during the evening and through the night, as he had noticed that was when Entrapta slept—if she slept at all, anyway. The strangeness of Etherian circadian rhythms aside, if Entrapta happened to be sleeping, and he felt tired enough, Hordak had taken to falling asleep on the high-backed lounge chair that she had brought with her from Dryl. Although he was far too large to sleep on it comfortably, he refused to impose or force his way into Entrapta’s personal space when she was sleeping, even if he was tired himself.

He was free to sleep in their room during the day, at least, in a bed large enough to accommodate his stature.

Over the last week and a half, however, he had noticed an unusual shift in how he slept. Prior to Entrapta moving into the sanctum, he had never had much of a problem with waking up before. He always followed a very specific routine and would wake up at an exact time, without thinking about it. The Fright could not run itself, after all, and there were a million different things that needed his attention on a daily basis. He did not have time to doze.

However, after Entrapta had moved into the sanctum with him, Hordak had found himself slower to wake than usual. Initially, he had assumed that someone had managed to sneak into the sanctum undetected and laced the bedding with some type of poison. Perhaps one that was meant to kill him and Entrapta slowly, and they would be dead before they realized what was happening. Even though Entrapta had tested the bedsheets, and found no traces of poison, Hordak had still changed them out for new ones anyway, if only to stave off his anxiety that someone had managed to get into their quarters without either of them noticing.

It hadn’t been until two days later, when he realized changing the sheets hadn’t helped the situation at all, that Hordak had realized that Entrapta’s scent had begun to permeate their shared living space. He had a keener sense of smell than he knew was standard for Etherians, so he could pick up things that others might have missed. The bedding had been smelling like Entrapta, and he had been shocked to realize that he found it… comforting, for reasons he couldn’t quite explain.

Where before he had always viewed sleeping as a necessity and little more, now he was…  _ content _ to just lay there and doze for longer than was strictly necessary, feeling completely at ease because it felt like Entrapta was everywhere. He felt…  _ safe _ .

Perhaps he should have considered this to be more of a problem than he was, as he scheduled his meetings around when he roughly knew he’d probably need to sleep. Though the Fright Zone had slowly begun getting back to normal, there were still repairs to oversee, paperwork to sign. Later that day, he was meant to have a meeting with Force Captain Grizzlor about how the repairs on the refinery were proceeding, with the hope that it would resume full operation again soon. Many of their outposts had been requesting resupplies that could not be provided, given the state of things.

Normally, he would have left such things mostly in the hands of a second-in-command, but he had neglected to actually promote anyone since Catra had been exiled to the Crimson Waste. So, he had been handling it himself, when he wasn’t spending time with Entrapta.

But he also did not want to wake up just yet. 

As he stretched out his limbs, Hordak yawned wide to reveal his canines and tongue before he settled again. He curled up, clutching the pillow close and burying his nasal ridge beneath what remained of his bicep. He could already feel himself drifting off again, lingering on the edge of wakefulness as his ears relaxed completely and began drooping downward.

And then, something large and distinctly metal butted itself against his side, letting out a sharp  _ bweep _ ! directly into his ear. Hordak’s entire body seized up in surprise, his talons digging into the sheets as he bolted upright and looked in the direction of the sound. Emily stared back at him, bouncing in place on her legs as she let out a second happy, almost trill-like sound. Taking a deep breath and willing his heart to stop racing, Hordak flopped back down, pressing his face into the pillow again with a groan.

_ Bweep _ !

“Use your inside voice, Emily,” Hordak mumbled into the pillow.

He was not unaccustomed to rude awakenings. Imp had developed a rather nasty habit of doing so—in no small part because Hordak indulged him too much—usually when he had decided that Hordak had gotten enough sleep or he decided he wanted attention. Sometimes both at once. However, recently, Imp had taken to spending more time around Entrapta whenever Hordak was sleeping, and so Hordak hadn’t been woken by high-pitched screeching in his ear in over two weeks.

Emily tended to be more… delicate when she tried to wake him up, and while he did not know if that had been intentional programming on Entrapta’s part, he appreciated it nonetheless.

When Emily beeped again—and continued to do so over and over again in a slow drone—she did so  _ quietly _ , as he had asked her to, while lightly nudging him in the side with what he assumed was one of her legs. The beep she was using was a specific one, as he had never heard her use it except when she wanted his attention and his attention alone. It was different from the ones she used when she wanted the same from Entrapta or Imp. Hordak could only assume it was the way she referred to each of them in her own way, as she lacked a true voice of her own.

When he finally started feeling less drowsy, Hordak started trying to sit up. “Alright, Emily…” he said, absently rubbing his eyes. “I am awake now.”

At that, Emily let out a chorus of excited  _ bwips _ , twirling around on her legs. She lost her balance when her bad leg stuck, but when she tumbled, she quickly brought her legs back into the slots of her outer casing and rolled, allowing her to come to a stop. The corner of Hordak’s mouth gave a slightest of quirks upwards before he gritted his teeth and attempted to rise from the bed. He only rarely slept in his armor, when he had no other choice, but moving before it had been refitted was always painful and exhausting.

His movements were shaky, but Emily quickly trotted back over to bump against his side in what Hordak assumed was meant to be a supportive gesture. Lightly, he patted the bot atop her outer casing, and with her help supporting his weight, they made their way over to the armor fitting station. Entrapta had completely overhauled the design since she had moved into the sanctum full time, after realizing that it would be difficult for her to help him with his armor all the time. After all, she might not have realized he had woken up or she could have wandered away from the sanctum on an errand for her research.

Emily usually stuck close, though, so he at least had someone who could help him around when he didn’t have his armor on. She continued supporting him as the arms of the machine moved around him, more slowly and gently than before, slotting his armor in place over the parts of his body that had been affected by his health defects. He tried to keep himself upright, holding out an arm when prompted to do so by the machine. It was a tedious process, even if it was necessary.

The First One’s tech crystal that rested at the base of his throat was the only piece that he slotted back into place by himself.

Once his armor had been fastened back in place, he plucked the crystal off the top of a nearby desk. Since Entrapta had gifted him the crystal, he had kept it in a very specific spot when he was outside of his armor in order to ensure that he would never lose track of it. Lightly, he ran his thumb along the etchings that ran along the surface of it, taking care not to scuff it with his talon. He didn’t know what the etchings were for—information wells, perhaps?—but their presence was a staple of First One’s tech from what he had seen since he had begun working with Entrapta. Carefully, he reached up and slotted the crystal back in place at the base of his throat.

As soon as the crystal was back in its rightful place, Hordak sighed a breath of relief as the ever present ache in his muscles began to fade. Since the portal incident, Entrapta had been making minor adjustments here and there, tweaking the armor if it ever had what she had been describing as a ‘tizzy’… Hordak couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so well.

“Your help is most appreciated, Emily,” Hordak said as he reached out to pat the bot atop her outer casing again. Beside him, Emily let out an ecstatic sounding  _ chirp _ ! and bumped against his side like an over enthusiastic kitten. Hordak was nearly knocked over but managed to keep his balance, and another tiny smile tugged at his lips.

When Hordak finally emerged, he found Entrapta knelt at the base of the magic nullifier, mask in place over her face as sparks danced from the tool she held in her fingers. He didn’t feel the need to announce his presence, pausing several feet away instead, and found he was content enough to just… watch her as she worked. She was so utterly engrossed in it that she didn’t even notice Hordak.

Her hair lay motionless, curling around her on the floor, while Imp perched atop her shoulder, watching her work. She didn’t speak, even to Imp, but Hordak’s ears twitched as he heard her begin to hum. Then, he noticed her hair shift, twisting across the floor in rhythm with her hums. Hordak didn’t recognize the tune, but Imp certainly seemed to like it as he began mimicking her and nudging the crown of his head against her temple. Entrapta absentmindedly reached up with a stray flock of her hair to scratch Imp beneath his chin, never pausing in her humming.

The sound of it was soothing… Hordak could have listened to it for hours.

He was surprised when he felt Emily nudge herself up against his leg again. She let out a soft, trilling beep, and the sound of it was enough to pull Entrapta’s attention away from her work.

“Oh, good!” Entrapta said as she shoved her mask out of her face with a stray flock of hair. “Did you finally get him to wake up, Emily?”

“She did indeed,” Hordak said as Emily let out a happy  _ bwip _ , rocking on her legs. “She was very insistent that I get out of bed.”

Entrapta’s smile broadened. “You seem to have slept well!” she said happily, casually lifting herself to sit on a shelf of her own hair. “You have a pretty bad case of bed head, too.”

“… bed head,” Hordak repeated slowly, as he was unfamiliar with the term. Admittedly, he had not actually taken the time to look in the mirror after he finished refitting his armor…

His confusion must have been plain, as Entrapta giggled softly a moment later, resting her chin atop her laced fingers. “It means your hair is a mess, silly!”

Hordak’s ears flicked back, dusting blue at the tips. His hair had several cowlicks in it naturally, sticking up at odd angles even when he willed them to stay down. He often struggled to keep his hair neat for longer than a couple of hours before he had to adjust it again.He knew that he hadn’t been keeping his hair as tidy as he should have been, but it certainly wouldn’t do to break the habit regardless. He had already begun slipping in other aspects of appearance since he and Entrapta had grown closer. He couldn’t remember the last time he had worn his cape, for instance. Hastily, he reached up to begin trying to fix his hair.

“I shall return shortly then,” he said, already turning away from her. “So that I can fix this… this ‘bed head’.”

“Aww, I think it looks cuter like this, though!” Entrapta said, sounding disappointed.

Hordak paused, glancing over his shoulder in surprise. ‘Cute’ was not a word that he would have used to describe himself, but Entrapta certainly appeared to be sincere. “I, uh…” Hordak trailed off, not really knowing what to say in response.

“I can make it look a little neater if you want!” 

Without waiting for an answer, Entrapta rose up so that she was eye level with him and rather close. Hordak quickly averted his eyes and tried to ignore how his ears flushed a deeper shade of blue when she reached out with one of her hands. Her touch was gentle as she held his chin and began threading her fingers through his hair in an attempt to make it lie neater than it had been. To his surprise, his shoulders relaxed as she worked, and he found himself melting slowly into her touch. His ears had just begun to droop when he let out a soft  _ chirrup _ in the back of his throat before he even realized what he was doing.

His entire body stiffened as he awaited a dismissive remark… but Entrapta merely let out a soft melodic hum, lightly working her thumb against his jaw.

All too soon, she moved away with an excited  _ ta da! _ and Hordak was embarrassed to admit he almost followed after her simply because he wanted her to keep threading her fingers through his hair. It had been… nice. However, he managed to maintain some sense of dignity, and remained where he stood. A bright smile had made its way back onto Entrapta’s face as her hair fanned out around her, and Hordak broke eye contact again, dropping his gaze to the floor as he let out an awkward cough.

“The, uh… the ‘bed head’ is fixed then?” he managed to say.

“Yup!” Entrapta said, turning away and plopping down in front of the magic nullifier again. “Still looks cute, though, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Hordak opened his mouth only to pause before he could say anything, unsure of how he was supposed to respond. She had called his hair ‘cute’ again—for the second time in less than ten minutes—and she seemed to genuinely believe it, judging by her tone. Hordak still found the descriptor odd when it was applied to himself. Was he supposed to compliment her back? Her own hair was… well,  _ beautiful _ , but he couldn’t figure out how to phrase that without sounding like a fool.

Finally, he glanced away. His gaze fell upon the magic nullifier that Entrapta had returned to fiddling with. Though Hordak knew little of the intricacies of magic, since she had moved into the sanctum, he had been more than happy to listen to Entrapta work through her thought process of fetch tools when she requested them. Imp had been more and more unhelpful to her as of late. They still hadn’t had a proper opportunity to run further tests since she had accidentally blown up a skiff bay, but Entrapta had insisted that she found several irregularities in her data. She didn’t feel right testing it again until she had more numbers and ran a couple of simulations.

Now, she was leaning over to solder a new wire in place while Imp was half-perched atop her head. A flock of her hair was wrapped firmly around the little brat’s mid-section—not for stability, Hordak realized, but to drag him out of the way at a moment’s notice if something went wrong.

“Do you require any assistance?” Hordak asked as he finally approached where she knelt upon the floor.

“I think I left my quad-sided driver over by your station!” Entrapta said, her voice muffled by her mask. “I’m going to need it here in a minute when I have to close this panel.”

Hordak’s ears twitched in amusement. “How did your quad-sided driver end up by my station?” he asked. “Did you not need it to open the panel in the first place?”

“Oh, I  _ did _ !” Entrapta said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “But I left my notes over there while we were working on your weapon idea earlier, and when I got them I must have left the quad-sided driver over there by mistake!”

The corner of Hordak’s mouth quirked upwards as he made his way over to his own station on the far side of the sanctum. Earlier, they had been working on a schematic for one of his own projects—a weapon of some kind, based on her research with First One’s tech. The preliminary designs were still laid out across the table, alongside a couple of writing implements and some pieces of scrap that had been pulled out of Entrapta’s collection. She had been kind enough to gift him some of the materials from her own ‘stash’—as she had put it—so that he could try his hand at tinkering with her older prototypes before attempting anything himself. There was also a large stack of papers that he had been making notes on, taken from both Entrapta’s in-person explanations and some of the recordings she had given him so that he could still work if she wasn’t present. He was rather inexperienced with using First One’s tech, so her guidance had been helpful.

The quad-sided driver sat atop the pile of notes, and Hordak grabbed it before heading back over to where Entrapta was sitting. Emily trailed dutifully a couple of paces behind him.

“Here you are,” Hordak said, holding out the driver for her take when he was within her reach.

Entrapta glanced over her shoulder before she reached out with her hair and plucked the driver from his palm. “Thaaaaank you,” she said in a melodic tone before turning her attention back to her project. 

It was difficult to tell when Entrapta was still paying attention to him even when she wasn’t looking at him, as she did not have mobile ears, so Hordak assumed that, for the moment, he was forgotten. However, he was content to watch her work, and was very eager to see what this magic nullifier of hers was going to be capable of when it was finally completed—she had mentioned that she was getting close. With any luck, it would be done before the Princesses managed to reorganize themselves. For the last few weeks, they had thankfully been quiet and kept to their own kingdoms. Despite their success in infiltrating the Fright Zone, for whatever reason, they had been left in shambles themselves… but it was only a matter of time before they regrouped and mounted another attack on the Fright Zone. Hordak wanted to be certain they were prepared for that.

He didn’t notice that someone had entered the sanctum until Scorpia nearly keeled over beside Entrapta on the floor, panting as though she had just run to the edge of the Crimson Waste and back again.

“Just…  _ whew _ , just give me a minute,” Scorpia managed to say in between her panting as she leaned over, resting her claws atop her knees. “I came as soon as I heard the news, Lord Hordak.”

Hordak’s ears flicked curiously, but his expression betrayed nothing. “What news?”

“Force Captain Octavia finally returned,” Scorpia said as she rose back to her full height and stretched out her back. Her tail flexed behind her as though she was stretching it as well. “She’s in the infirmary, I think… I didn’t get much more than that.”

Hordak’s ears shifted back in unease, pressing against the sides of his head. Octavia had always been one of his more  _ competent _ force captains, as well as one of the most experienced. She very rarely sustained serious injuries when she was in the field… and he couldn’t help but notice the lack of news on what had become of Catra.

“Entrapta, you mentioned that Emily has recording capabilities,” Hordak said, stepping away from the magic nullifier. “I feel that might be useful while I listen to Force Captain Octavia’s report.”

“Oh,  _ sure _ !” Entrapta said, waving a flock of hair. “I have Scorpia to help me!”

“Absolutely!” Scorpia chirped. She seemed ecstatic that she was going to be able to help. “Don’t worry, sir! Entrapta and I will have this…” she glanced at the magic nullifier and scratched the top of her head with a claw. “Uh… I’m gonna be honest, I don’t actually know what this is, but I will make sure Entrapta has everything she needs!”

“I am sure you will,” Hordak said over his shoulder, tucking his hands neatly at the small of his back as he made his way towards the sanctum’s door, with Emily trotting along behind him.

—

On his way down to the infirmary, Hordak came across a rather large number of soldiers, given the time of day. Although he said nothing to any of them, they all fell into line easily enough, backs pressing up against the wall as though they wanted to be absolutely positive he wouldn’t bump into them. Emily trotted dutifully along behind him, occasionally beeping at the people they passed, as though she meant to be friendly. Nobody commented on her presence, even if they seemed unnerved by it. Not unlike how everyone was unnerved by Entrapta’s or Imp’s. He paid them little mind, as his thoughts were elsewhere, but he was pleased to see that he was still terrifying to those under his command, in spite of his lack of cape—he hadn’t felt compelled to wear it since Entrapta had upgraded his armor for him.

When he finally arrived at the infirmary, the on-duty doctor—whose name escaped him—was thrown into a panic. They spoke quickly, although Hordak barely caught a word of it, as they ushered him back to one of the examination rooms where Force Captain Octavia had been left to recuperate.

She had certainly seen better days.

Although Octavia had been missing one of her eyes for years, it had been years since she had returned to the Fright Zone in this sort of state. Dark blue bruises covered what skin was visible on her arms and shoulders, and she had thick gauze bandages wrapped tightly around what Hordak could only assume were deep lacerations. When she noticed that she had a visitor—and who that visitor was—she tried to sit up and salute, but her movements were stiff. Hordak did not miss how she had to grit her teeth as she did so.

“Lord Hordak,” she managed to say, though her voice was very hoarse. Her eye darted to look at Emily, where the bot was peeking out around his legs, and Hordak didn’t miss the flash of unease that crossed her gaze. “… that is Princess Entrapta’s bot.”

“Yes,” Hordak said curtly, although he did not see why that was relevant. “Entrapta upgraded Emily to have recording capabilities, and I felt it was pertinent to have your report on the record, given the circumstances.”

Octavia said nothing in response, although Hordak didn’t miss how her expression shifted to something he wasn’t entirely sure he could read. The near lack of mobile ears on his planet would forever be a thorn in his side.

Ignoring her look, Hordak turned to Emily and lightly pat her atop her outer casing. He hadn’t actually thought to ask Entrapta how to get the bot to begin recording, but Emily seemed intuitive enough to understand what he wanted from her. She gave a soft  _ bwip _ , and there was a shift in the photo-intensity of her ocular processor. He assumed that meant she had begun doing what she had been brought along to do.

“Now, then,” Hordak said in a clipped tone as he took a couple of steps towards his Force Captain, lingering at the foot of her hospital bed. His eyes narrowed as he glared down his nasal ridge at her. “It would seem that Catra  _ escaped _ your grasp.”

Rather than be intimidated, Octavia actually laughed hard enough that she let out a loud wheezing cough and needed a minute to come back to herself. “Oh, she did far more than that the little—” she cut off and growled under her breath. “She ambushed us in the Whispering Woods.”

“… with the Princesses?” Hordak assumed in a low snarl. It was the only thing that made sense to him—if the Princesses had been smart enough to take in  _ Shadow Weaver _ when she defected from the Horde, then taking in Catra when she did the same was the next obvious step. Catra would have sold their secrets to the highest bidder, if she was given half a chance, and given what had transpired following the attack on the Fright Zone, she held no loyalty to the Horde any longer.

The look on Octavia’s face, however, told him that his assumption was wrong. Her gaze had darkened and for a moment, she could only wordlessly shake her head. “If there were any Princesses there, I didn’t see ‘em… I doubt that they would have taken kindly to what she did to me and my contingent anyway.”

Hordak eyed her injuries again. The bandages were hiding deep lacerations—from  _ claws _ , he realized—and dread coiled into the pit of his gut as he noticed the lack of sound elsewhere in the infirmary. Octavia had been sent out with a dozen other soldiers, surely more had returned with her. There should have been people shifting in cots, groaning over their injuries, calling for the doctor so they could have more medication…

Instead, there was near silence—all he could hear besides his own breathing and Octavia’s was the soft hum of the Fright Zone’s half-fixed energy grid.

“—knew that we were coming for her, sir,” Octavia was saying.

Of course she had. Hordak tried to keep his expression neutral, to the best of his ability, but a snarl still rose in his throat regardless. “If she did not realize that her days were numbered the moment she crossed me, then I would have been thinking too highly of her! What in the  _ Void _ —”

“ _ Sir _ ,” Octavia cut him off, gritting her teeth. “You asked me to tell you what happened, so I am going to tell you.”

Hordak flexed his fingers, his talons digging into the skin of his palms as he tried to remind himself that the Fright Zone was secure. There was little chance of Catra managing to get back inside unless she had very specific means. So far, the only  _ positive _ thing that Octavia had told him was that it seemed as though Catra hadn’t thought to seek out the Princesses for protection. Yet, anyway. Taking a deep breath, he tried to ‘think positively’, as Entrapta had put it and shifted his focus back to Octavia.

“… go on,” he finally said.

When Octavia sighed it was dejected, defeated,  _ tired _ … very much unlike her. “My contingent and I were sweeping the edge of the Whispering Woods. We had followed Catra’s trail there from the edge of the Fright Zone, but we didn’t want to venture in too far and risk getting lost in there. We had split up, to cover more ground and ensure the only way Catra could escape was traveling deeper into the Woods.”

There, she paused, as if she was attempting to collect her thoughts. She opened her mouth once, only to close it again, and then she let out a deep sigh through her nose. “When I attempted to check in with the north-bound team, all I got was static,” she continued, and there was an underlying stiffness to her voice. “So, the south-bound team and I went to see what the problem was. When we got there… the entire team had been wiped out. Their skiff looked like it had exploded.”

Her eye darted to look at Hordak and her face twisted into a deep scowl. “That was not the work of Princesses—it couldn’t have been,” she said, shaking her head. “So, we stayed in the area, and waited, assuming that Catra would return once she knew we were there. It wasn’t until after the sun had gone down that she struck. It was so dark, she had us at her mercy, and she picked us off one-by-one. I was the only one she left alive.”

It felt as though Hordak’s blood had turned to ice in veins. He had known that Catra was ruthless, but he had never thought she’d actually kill an entire contingent of soldiers when they were at her mercy like that, and leave only the Force Captain alive.

“… she called me the messenger,” Octavia added tiredly.

“And what was her message?” he asked, assuming that Catra meant it for him. He almost felt ashamed by the shake that had made it into his voice. Not fear for himself—he didn’t particularly care what Catra tried to do to him—but he could not get the idea of her going after Entrapta again out of his head.

“Something about how she wasn’t going to back down and she had unfinished business, whatever that means,” Octavia said with a wincing shrug. “I don’t know where she went after that. Maybe back into the Woods, maybe out into the Waste. Either way, she’s long gone.”

Hordak found that his voice had left him entirely. He had been hoping to receive  _ good _ news when Octavia had finally returned from the field—that Catra had been captured, and thus, neutralized as a threat. He had been hoping that he could finally reassure Entrapta that she could never have to worry about Catra hurting her again. Instead, he was left with a dozen troops dead by Catra’s hand, and the sole survivor repeating whatever nonsense Catra had spoon-fed her before leaving her for dead on the edge of the Whispering Woods. Hordak could not think of anything else that Catra’s ‘unfinished business’ could possibly be referring to besides the unsuccessful betrayal of his Lab Partner.

It wasn’t until he had ushered Emily back into the infirmry’s hallway, leaving Octavia to rest, that he actually allowed himself to nearly put his fist through the nearby wall.


	4. Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a long hiatus there! i apologize, my other wip thoroughly grabbed my attention away from this one for about three months. good news is that that project is almost finished being drafted. bad news is that i probably won't be done with it until the end of september.
> 
> so it might be a little bit before this fic updates again. but hopefully it won't be a three month long hiatus this time around.

_ Tick. Tick. Tick. _

One of Hordak’s ears twitched as he listened to the timepiece that Entrapta had hung up on the wall only a few days prior. He wasn’t entirely certain that the time displayed on it was accurate, as he was half-convinced that Entrapta had pulled it out of the garbage before it could be incinerated… but she had been so taken with tinkering with it that he had decided to not ask questions. She had hung it above the door to their quarters, so that it could be easily seen from the bed.

It was at least accurate enough to tell Hordak that he had around fifteen minutes before his first meeting of the morning was set to begin. He almost grumbled aloud at the thought, as in his opinion, there was nothing more dull than a morning meeting. However, much as he might have wanted to spend his time elsewhere—remaining hidden away in the sanctum, for instance, where nobody would even think of bothering him—the Fright Zone was not capable of running itself. Its continued stability was paramount, lest riots break out because troops had not received their requisitions in a timely fashion.

And with the Fright Zone still in the process of righting itself, many requisitions had been taking longer than normal. Such delays left Hordak uneasy, which was why his first meeting had been scheduled for the earliest time slot he could bring himself to manage. Force Captain Grizzlor had been leading the efforts to bring the refineries back online, so they would be able to fill the slowly mounting piles of requisition forms for new armor.

For now, though, he stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom, fiddling with his hair in an attempt to make it appear more presentable. It would have been easy enough, he supposed, to find the gel he had often used in the past to keep his hair slicked back. His hair tended to have a life of its own, leaving it a constant mess unless he straightened it out multiple times a day. He had found that in recent days, he had liked how his hair looked much better if it was just a little tousled, rather than fighting a losing battle with it to try and make it lay perfectly flat atop his skull.

His mind drifted to how Entrapta had referred to his hair as ‘cute’—not just once, but several times over the past few weeks. She had even developed a small habit of fiddling with his hair when he came back from sleeping… and he, in turn, had fallen into his own habit of neglecting to check his hair before returning. He had told himself that it was simply because there was no reason to fix it when he wasn’t intending to leave the sanctum, even though he knew it was a lie. A small one, but a lie nonetheless.

Mostly he just wanted an excuse for her to touch his hair again without him having to awkwardly try to ask her to.

Faintly, over the ticking of the timepiece, Hordak heard a soft, stuttering snore. His talons paused in his hair as one of his ears twitched and swiveled back in the direction of the door to the bedroom. Soft, incoherent mumblings followed before silence once again enveloped the sanctum. Hordak allowed himself a faint smile as he put the finishing touches on his hair and then finally turned away from the mirror.

He knew it was rather early in the morning, if only because he retreated into the bedroom a mere two hours prior to have one last sleep before his meetings. The only reason he had taken the bed was because, the previous evening, Entrapta had fallen asleep at her work station. Hordak hadn’t had the opportunity to ask her what she was working on, only to notice that it involved her datapad, long range tracking software, and an assortment of charts and maps of various locales around Etheria. When she had fallen asleep, though, he hadn’t known what to do with her, even though he knew that falling asleep at her workstation likely was not good for her.

But he also hadn’t wanted to risk waking her up either, and he certainly didn’t want to touch her while she was sleeping. While he would have trusted her to move him had he been asleep, he did not yet know if she extended the same trust to him. He hadn’t wanted to startle her if she had woken up while he was moving her. So, instead he had found one of the blankets she most liked from the bedroom and draped it over her shoulders when he had noticed she had fallen asleep.

When he passed through the door to the bedroom and out into the sanctum proper, he found that Entrapta had remained right where he had left her earlier. He gave a quick once over, even though he would have known if someone had managed to sneak into the sanctum and gotten close to her, as Imp was curled up on a pillow atop Entrapta’s station. 

As Hordak approached where Entrapta sat, Imp’s little ears gave a twitch and he raised his head sleepily. Briefly, Hordak spotted how the little brat’s pupils dilated behind the bright yellow glow of his eyes, before he realized the trespasser was just Hordak. Then, he promptly passed out again, burying his face in the soft material of the pillow, kneading his tiny talons into the plushness beneath him.

In front of Entrapta, there was an array of papers laid out, stacked haphazardly atop one another. Some were rather large and creased in such a way that it was clear they had been folded at some point in the past. He recognized a map of Etheria’s surface, half-hidden at the bottom of the stack, and could easily pick out several of the planet’s oceans and mountain ranges, as well as a few of the capital kingdoms. There was a note made beside Bright Moon that he could easily read, in spite of Entrapta’s handwriting. He had become familiar with her shorthand in the weeks they had been working together. She had marked the kingdom itself as unlikely, but he did spot a large circle somewhere in the middle of the Whispering Woods.

Several other maps sat in the pile as well, half-hiding one another. Hordak was not going to go digging through her personal belongings, even if he hadn’t already deduced that she had likely been on the hunt for more First One’s tech to experiment with. He recognized the map she had once showed him of the Crimson Waste when she had been trying to convince him to send an extraction team, and there was a second map that seemed to be of the Northern Reach covered in calculations, notes, and a small doodle of a rather menacing looking worm.

The oldest of her maps appeared to be of Beast Island and the surrounding oceans. The paper on which it had been drawn was old and yellowed, torn and frayed along the edges, and the handwriting that covered the margins was not recognizable to him. He liked to believe that he knew Entrapta’s handwriting well enough by now to recognize it—even if it was ‘chicken scratch’, if he was remembering that Etherian colloquialism correctly. He was uncertain that the person who had made notes on this map of Beast Island was even writing in plain Etherian at all.

It looked more like the sweeping lines and symbols that were engraved on First One’s tech…

He had only just noticed that he had reached up to lightly trace the engravings of the crystal of his throat when Entrapta gave a particularly loud snore. Hordak froze in place and glanced at her, worried that he had somehow disturbed her by getting too close when he was peering at her maps. However, Entrapta merely shifted in her sleep and didn’t wake, drool pooling atop a couple sheets of notes that were trapped against the desk beneath her cheek.

An almost soft smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he wordlessly reached out and began lightly threading his talons through one of her voluminous ponytails, as she had done many times with his crest in the past. 

“Imp,” Hordak said in a sharp whisper, glancing away from his Lab Partner for a moment.

The little brat raised his head again and rubbed one of his eyes with a sleepy grumble.

“If she awakens before this afternoon, inform her that I will be in meetings until then,” Hordak said simply.

Imp yawned wide, revealing his tiny canines, before he nodded. He was already asleep again before Hordak could add anything else he might have wanted to tell Entrapta.

Although Hordak was still reluctant to leave the sanctum, he heard the timepiece in the bedroom give a sharp chime that startled him. Finally, he drew his hand away from Entrapta’s hair, which had begun lightly curling around his fingers and seemed reluctant to allow him to leave, tightening its hold when he attempted to free himself. He managed, though, and took a quick step back before he could be grabbed at again. He would have never gotten free otherwise, as her hair had a vice-like grip that was impossible to escape if she wanted to keep a hold on something.

When he finally emerged from the sanctum, Force Captain Grizzlor was already standing there, glancing around the throne room uncertainly—perhaps even assuming that he had gotten the scheduled time of his meeting wrong. The moment he noticed Hordak approaching, however, he immediately fell back into line, standing at attention.

“… it is unlike you to be late, sir,” Grizzlor said with a certain stiffness to his voice.

“I was otherwise occupied,” Hordak said simply, and he was content to leave it at that. While he didn’t recognize the expression that flashed across the Force Captain’s face, he also didn’t have the time nor the interest to question him on it. He was far more concerned with the progress that had been made on the refinery.

And Grizzlor’s assumptions about how he had been spending his time outside of meetings were the least of his concerns.

—

Thankfully, the rest of his meeting with Grizzlor passed without incident, and Hordak was not subjected to any further comments on his lateness. Rather, in an effort to impress, what should have been a simple report on the progress made in the refineries ended up filling the entire hour. Grizzlor had gone over every planned renovation in excruciating detail, and had even offered to give Hordak a tour of the place, right then and there. Hordak had been forced to decline, as he had other meetings scheduled that morning that he simply could not cancel or shift around. Not if he wanted to have the afternoon free to spend time with Entrapta.

He had been doing that a lot more, as of late… scheduling meetings back-to-back without thinking of the consequences. Namely, him being forced to sit there for hours on end and listen to reports from his Force Captains. But he  _ preferred _ to spend his afternoons with Entrapta in the sanctum, rather than run around and play Lord of the Fright Zone all day without a break or pause.

After his meeting with Grizzlor, Hordak was scheduled to speak with Octavia and Scorpia. He had assigned them to oversee a number of scouting contingents that had been combing over the edges of the Fright Zone’s territories, for any lingering signs of Princess activity. It was the only thing that Octavia had been able to handle while recovering from her injuries at Catra’s claws. Though it was little more than menial desk work, mostly shuffling through and organizing field reports, neither Octavia nor Scorpia had complained. They had merely done what was asked of them.

And quite frankly, Hordak could not have cared less what the Princesses were currently doing, so long as they stayed on their side of the borders and didn’t attempt to cause trouble for his troops. The Fright Zone’s continued stability was more important to him than wasting his troops in an attempt to take more territory when they were still in shambles themselves. He assumed if the Princesses had actual understanding of military strategy—which prior experience did suggest—then they would be smart enough to do the same. They still hadn’t made a move against Horde occupied territory in almost a month, although reports had been inconclusive as to why.

“There have been no sightings along the edge of the Whispering Woods, Lord Hordak,” Octavia was saying as she carefully skimmed over a file that had been placed in her hands not even two seconds before.

Hordak wasn’t particularly surprised by that, given the Whispering Woods acted as a natural barrier between the Fright Zone and Bright Moon. It was next to impossible to navigate in there, so the Princesses didn’t need to put as much effort in to defend it.

“And what of the Crimson Waste?” he asked instead as his ears shifted forward in interest. While he hadn’t intended to actually send troops back into the Waste, he still wanted to ensure the Fright Zone was not taken by surprise. The fact that the Waste was not actually a lifeless wasteland complicated matters, as it meant that there were people out there who could potentially pose a threat to their borders. People who had a defensible position that would make it difficult to invade, if he could ever work out the logistics of it.

“Oh!”

Besides Octavia, Scorpia let out an excited sound, perking straight up. The file folder that had been perched atop her head was sent flying as a result, and the papers within fluttered to the floor somewhere behind her. She peered over her shoulder, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “Oops, sorry—about that, uh, hang on!” she said quickly, already shuffling through the folders she had clutched in her arms. “I have a file here somewh—oh, here it is!”

Scorpia clutched the file in her claws, peering at it. “It says here that the scouts spotted She Ra along with three companions, heading back into the Waste.”

Hordak’s ears gave a contemplative flick. “Did they manage to identify her companions?”

“One was  _ definitely _ a princess,” Scorpia said as she skimmed over the file. “Uhhh… long blonde hair, lots of flowers?”

Although Hordak was inclined to believe the princess in question was the Princess of Plumeria, he said nothing in response.

“There were two other soldiers too,” Scorpia continued. “But the scouts couldn’t get close enough to accurately identify them without being spotted. I told them you wanted to prevent escalation, sir.”

“Yes, I remember,” Hordak said mildly, with a dismissive flick of his ears. At present, escalating the war would have been a terrible move, and he was unwilling to risk his soldiers in such a manner, even if the Princesses had never been inclined to take prisoners of war in his experience. They more often allowed the Horde soldiers to retreat and didn’t seem intent on doing more than that.

He was at a loss for why the Princesses were moving into the Crimson Waste, though. The only good thing that had ever come out of the place was the First One’s tech signature that had caught Entrapta’s attention so thoroughly. Since the catastrophic portal incident, however, Entrapta hadn’t brought that signature up again, and had moved her attention to other projects. There wasn’t much else out in the Crimson Waste that he knew of, unless the Princesses were after the same tech signature.

One of Hordak’s ears twitched and swiveled to listen to an overhead vent, and a moment later, Imp came gliding out. He landed carefully on Hordak’s shoulder, his tail curling carefully around the back of Hordak’s neck. As the tip of his tail twitched back and forth, Imp let out a soft, warbling chirp. His bright yellow eyes were locked upon their visitors, but he said nothing, nor did he make any moves to tease them.

Nevertheless, his presence was enough to tell Hordak that Entrapta must have finally been awake. It was likely getting close to midday by now. She would have to occupy herself for just a little bit longer… but Hordak was certain she had plenty of maps to occupy herself with, First One’s tech to find…

“I assume you have some idea of what they’re doing out there,” Hordak asked as he lightly reached out to scratch Imp beneath his chin, earning a soft  _ chirrup _ in response, and a rare show of affection of Imp butted the top of his head against Hordak’s jaw.

Although Octavia eyed Imp nervously—as people around the Fright Zone were often prone to doing—she seemed content to ignore him for the most part. “Unfortunately, we don’t, sir,” she said, shaking her head. “There just isn’t enough information on the Waste for us to be certain…”

Hordak hesitated to speak for a moment. He did not like the idea of sending scouts out into that wasteland when they were thoroughly unprepared for what was out there. It would have been a waste…

“Could be the ship,” Scorpia said offhandedly.

Hordak could only stare at her. “… the what?”

“Oh, yeah! There was this _ massive _ ship out there, buried in the sand!” Scorpia said. Then, she tapped her chin lightly with one of her claws. “Adora had been looking for it, I think? That could be what they’re after.”

Before Hordak could press any further, however, there was a sharp clang from amongst the rafters above them. His ears flicked up to the same vent that Imp had glided out of mere minutes before. The metal groaned before it collapsed, and Entrapta tumbled out. She didn’t have far to fall, though, and landed directly in Hordak’s lap, where he sat upon the throne. Hordak grunted in surprise, momentarily taken aback—surely she hadn’t meant to fall from the vents, as she was normally very adept at catching herself.

Entrapta barely even seemed to notice where she had ended up, and her hair was already frizzing up in excitement. “ _ Hordak _ !” she said as a bright grin broke out across her features. Immediately, she pulled her datapad from where it had been hidden away in her hair, thrusting it into his face for him to see.

Hordak had to lean back slightly to prevent himself from going cross-eyed, and he felt his ears heat, flushing blue at the tips, when he realized how close she actually was.

“I found it!” she squealed happily. “Ohhhh, I’ve had this search going in the background for  _ weeks _ , and I thought today might’ve been the day I finally got a hold of another signal! Actually, it woke me up—thank you for tucking me in, by the way, that was very sweet of you.”

“… Entrapta?” Hordak tried to cut in, but it seemed that she didn’t notice. However, Hordak did not get the impression that she was purposefully ignoring him, but rather had already become so overwhelmed by her excitement that he would not have been able to get her attention unless he yelled… and he really did not wish to yell at her.

“It’s sooo exciting, Hordak!” she continued, positively gleeful as she wiggled in his lap. “While it’s not the biggest signal I’ve ever picked up—I think that honor goes to the message I found while scanning the Crimson Waste—there is  _ absolutely _ a vein of First One’s tech in the Western Approach!”

From within her hair, she produced a map—one of the ones he had seen her sleeping on that morning—that he recognized as the Western Approach, which was just south of the Northern Reach. It was a wide expansion of prairie land that gave way to chilly mountains. Entrapta had covered the map in her scrawl, making a variety of notes and calculations. However, Hordak could only look at the map she was holding in vain, as he couldn’t actually make out where she had made the mark for where exactly the First One’s tech was.

Luckily, his confusion must have been plain, as Entrapta paused before she launched herself into another explanation. “Do you need me to repeat anything?”

Hordak quickly shook his head—he had heard every word she had said up until that point. “Where is the uh… vein of First One’s tech?” he asked, peering at the map. “Did you locate its coordinates?”

“Not exactly,” Entrapta admitted, but her mood didn’t seem to dampen in the slightest. She indicated to a few spots on the map in quick succession. “I picked up signals here, here, here, here, and  _ here _ , but my scan might have been imprecise! I just need a little more time to properly triangulate the coordinates, but that’ll be  _ easy _ now that I have so many signals to use.”

Hordak didn’t respond, his voice caught in his throat as she let out another giddy giggle. The sparkle in her eyes reminded him of starlight…

“Isn’t it exciting?” Entrapta asked, leaning closer to him so they were nearly nose to nasal ridge. The blue tint across the tips of his ears deepened as Hordak found himself frozen in place. “I’ve been searching since you finished those schematics on the EKS upgrade! We’ll be able to test them out once I go to retrieve the tech!”

That snapped him out of it, and he managed to regain control of his tongue. “Once  _ you _ go?”

“Well, yeah! I’m the Fright Zone’s expert on First One’s tech, aren’t I?” Entrapta repeated with a confused frown. “It only makes sense that I go!”

Hordak hadn’t even considered that if she found a vein of First One’s tech, she would want to leave the Fright Zone to go chasing after it. The last signal she had found, they had been wrapped up in the portal project, and so her expertise had been far more valuable in the Fright Zone than it would have been running around the Crimson Waste.  _ Especially _ since he had intended for Catra to die out there. He did not want her to come to harm unnecessarily.

However, Entrapta was looking at him expectantly now, with her starlight filled eyes, and he was reminded that she was still perched upon his lap. A flock of her hair was threading its way across the back of his hand…

He averted his gaze quickly, and realized that Octavia and Scorpia were still standing at the foot of the dais—he had completely forgotten about their presence. They had witnessed this entire conversation, they had _ seen _ how he had yet to actually tell Entrapta to get off of him, how he had hung onto her every word. Where Scorpia had frozen where she was knelt upon the floor, clutching a couple of empty folders and loose sheets of paper, Octavia appeared to be utterly flabbergasted.

“We can send a team… with you,” he finally managed to spit out, turning his gaze back upon Entrapta. “I do not believe that any danger has been reported recently in the Western Approach, but your safety is of the utmost concern.”

Entrapta let out an excited shriek, and before Hordak could react, she had reached out with the ends of ponytails, squishing his face in her hair and planted a kiss directly on his cheek. Almost as quickly as it had happened, Entrapta was already moving away from him, reaching out with her hair to swing gracefully through the air back towards the sanctum. “Thanks, Hordak!” she called over her shoulder, disappearing back into the dimly lit sanctum, with Imp gliding along behind her, out of sight.

Hordak could only stare after her, feeling the blush at the tips of his ears slowly make its way down across his cheeks.

“… Lonnie was right, holy shit…”

Octavia’s disbelieving whisper broke through Hordak’s stupor.

Tearing his gaze away from the sanctum doors, Hordak quickly adjusted how he was sitting and steeled his expression once again. He knew there was no helping his ears, though. Not when he was frazzled like this. “Do you have something to say, Force Captain Octavia?”

“No—No, sir,” Octavia said quickly, shaking her head. “Nothing at all.”

Hordak cleared his throat, and turned his gaze upon Scorpia. She immediately stood up straight, hugging her files close to her chest. “Force Captain Scorpia, you are aware of what I am about to ask of you… but Force Captain Octavia, are you well enough for some light fieldwork?” he asked. “Entrapta will require protection while she is away from the Fright Zone hunting this new vein of First One’s tech, and I would  _ prefer _ to know that she is in capable hands.”

“Of course, sir,” Octavia agreed quickly. “It’s the Western Approach. There isn’t much out there. Should be easy enough to track down the tech and get out before the Princesses realize what we’re doing. Princess Entrapta will be back safe and sound.”

That was reassuring enough, he supposed.

—

The rest of his meetings passed by in a haze, and Hordak struggled to focus on what was being said throughout. However, if any of the Force Captains noticed his lapses in attention, they had enough sense to not ask questions. As soon as his final meeting had concluded, he wasted no time returning to the sanctum. Once he was alone, he finally allowed himself a moment to breathe.

Entrapta was nowhere to be seen, nor was Imp, but Emily happily trotted over to greet him, bouncing excitedly on her legs and trilling at him. He reached out and lightly patted the top of her outer casing before moving around her so that he could retreat to his own workstation—he had been refining the schematics for an upgrade to the ‘Emily’s Kid Sister’ bots for the last week, but now that Entrapta would actually be retrieving First One’s tech, he wanted to ensure that he hadn’t overlooked anything in his haste. It was his first true attempt at weaponizing First One’s tech, using Entrapta’s guidance.

The end result had been likened to something called a ‘hydra’ by Entrapta, since the bots would be capable of self-replication, even when they had been severed clean in half. She had been absolutely fascinated by the design, and he could so clearly remember her berating herself about how she hadn’t thought to do that. Hordak had assumed that such bots would make defending the Fright Zone easier, as they wouldn’t need to be constantly replacing bots if the bots could self-replicate when they were destroyed.

However, it would have taken a substantial amount of First One’s tech to replace all of the bots in the Fright Zone, and all of those at their outposts. Hordak just needed enough tech to make a few bots for a test run, though… a good starting point, so that he could work out any kinks in the design before they went into more mass-scale production.

Hopefully, Entrapta would be able to find everything they needed in the Western Approach.

Hordak frowned at the schematics laid out in front of him as he remembered that he would not be accompanying Entrapta. His ears twitched irritably at the sides of his head. The Fright Zone was still unstable, and would only lead to chaos if he followed Entrapta to the Western Approach without thinking about the consequences. Of course, the easiest solution would have been to install a new second-in-command who could oversee the more…  _ finicky _ aspects of the Fright Zone in his stead, but that required actually finding someone competent that he knew he could trust to not muck it up.

While he hadn’t truly ever trusted Shadow Weaver, she had been very thorough and methodical. He had never worried about the Fright Zone collapsing in on itself when he was needed elsewhere. Catra, on the other hand, had lacked base management skills. She seemed to have been under the impression that a war was better won quickly and decisively, with very little thought towards stretching troops thin. There weren’t many other people who would have been able to run the Fright Zone in his stead if he  _ did _ decide to leave. Octavia and Scorpia would be accompanying Entrapta, and Grizzlor would have been far too busy with his side project of getting the refinery back up and running to actually have time for day-to-day management.

Which meant that it unfortunately fell to Hordak to pick up the slack, when he would have much rather preferred to remain in his sanctum and spend the entire day tinkering away.

“Hordak!” Entrapta’s voice cut through his thoughts as she dropped into the room through a nearby vent—thankfully not landing on him this time.

Hordak found his shoulders relaxing, if only just a touch, as he half-turned away from his workspace. She was hanging from the rafters by her hair, with Imp perched upon her shoulder, and a bright grin on her face. “Entrapta,” he greeted her calmly, offering a small smile of his own.

“I’m almost done getting everything ready that I’ll need when we leave!” Entrapta said excitedly, and ripple coursed through her hair, starting at her scalp and running along to the tips of her ponytails. She wiggled a little bit in her air, seeming incapable of controlling herself as a noise that reminded him vaguely of a chirp left her. “I’m soooo excited! You’ve already prepared transportation, right? When do we leave?”

Hordak’s smile immediately dropped. “… there seems to have been a misunderstanding.”

Entrapta’s expression shifted, her brow pinching. “I don’t understand.”

“I—I do not mean that you have done something wrong,” Hordak said quickly, shaking his head. “But you left so quickly earlier that you did not hear that I would not be able to accompany you to the Western Approach.”

“… oh,” she said stiffly. Her disappointment was clear, even if her ears did not accentuate her expressions.

Hordak’s ears twitched uncomfortably as he mulled over his words. This was still salvageable. He could say something to make her feel better—the error had been his. He should have been more clear with her. “It—It is not that I do not wish to accompany you!” he managed to say. “I would like nothing more than to travel with you to find First One’s tech—”

“—but?” Entrapta finished for him, peeking at him again.

“I cannot leave the Fright Zone to accompany you, much as I would like to,” he finally said as his ears twitched nervously against the sides of his head. “I feel it would be unwise for me to do so, especially since two of my most competent Force Captains are being sent along to guard you.”

“Well… even if you can’t come this time, there’s always next time!” Entrapta said. “I’m sure I’ll find another vein eventually, and maybe by then the Fright Zone will be operational again.” She smiled tentatively, edging closer to him, even though he still had to tilt his head back to keep eye contact with her. “And then we can go together!”

Hordak managed a smile of his own, chuckling softly. “I would like that, yes…”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [revasnaslan](https://revasnaslan.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter: [revasnaslan](https://twitter.com/revasnaslan)


End file.
